Album Review: San Cisco - Gracetown

It’s been something of an adventure watching San Cisco grow up.

They’re one of those bands that, due to their relatively young age at which they hit the big time, have been necessarily open about their artistic progression. Gracetown is sheathed in a slick sense of maturity, but don’t fret too much on that clouding their cheeky, childlike perspective, because that’s still here in spades.

If Gracetown is a statement on anything, it’s the four-piece’s devoted understanding and love of pop music. From the cartoonishly bright album cover – a Gracetown beach shack, naturally – to the average track time of around three minutes, this is a band harnessing the energy they’ve gathered over years of being thrown into the midst of the national and international circuit. A handful of singles have already established the jaunty pop lean, such as openers Run and Too Much Time Together. There’s an honest attempt to produce serious gems though, with Snow seeing some subtle funk experimentation and the quirky, eclectic beat of Jealousy peaking in the middle. But it’s the spot-on R&B groove of closer Just For A Minute that pins the whole lot together. And man, that solo.

Lyrically, Gracetown is probably what you expect, with a whole lot of longing after the opposite sex flitting around tongue-in-cheek references to awkward moments and nostalgia. There’s an obvious context behind the whole record, which does drag on through the latter half of the album. But at least it’s concise and direct, and that’s probably what’ll make this another popular album.