Spiral Beach

Spiral Beach have become the house band for Toronto’s underage set. Their first (self-produced) album was exceptionally, unexpectedly catchy and after its release their largely all-ages shows began to pack them in. With their assets firmly established, the band are now releasing their second record, Ball, which lives up to all expectations. From their promo pictures to the warbling sound effects they employ, Spiral Beach have a definite interest in ’60s psych. This, however, is ’60s psych reinvented by people who came of age in the time of alternative rock and electronically manipulated top 40 hits — arty, to be certain, but always accessible and the better for it. Style and genre are unimportant, what matters is churning out great hooks and taking time to fuck around in between songs. While the band’s tomfoolery sometimes threatens to derail the album a good melodic line sets things straight immediately and the band seem to have an endless supply of great tunes and endearing quirks. It seems like Spiral Beach are making a bid for commercial success and this is definitely a good thing. Sometimes less respectable genres surface in the band’s stylistic mishmash (a recurring reggae/punk beat slants toward mall punk, at times) but one could easily argue that the ends — producing a good pop song — justifies the means. If that’s the case, then Spiral Beach are beyond reproach.