coastal: beneath the snow & streetlights

Signposts: Low, Slowdive, Red House Painters. Beneath the Snow and Streetlights is the third album by the Utah quartet Coastal and includes the band's first new material in a decade. The record features 15 tracks including five new songs alongside rarities and alternate and acoustic versions. The album launches with “We Drink to Remember” – a new song showcasing several elements of Coastal’s songwriting its fans have embraced since the band’s formation in 2000. Jason and Luisa Gough’s soothing vocals languidly waltz in tandem over a minimalistic guitar line as bells, sparse atmospherics, and guitar soundscapes build to create a stirring soundtrack. “Amber” could find a home on Twin Peaks with its unsettling guitar pulsations casting doubt on Gough’s lyrical reassurances. Also included is a previously unreleased collaboration with 12k Records founder Taylor Deupree – an electroacoustic reworking of “Infrared,” the closing track from the band’s 2001 self-titled debut. Over the last 15 years, many Coastal gems have been tucked away on little-known compilations – all of which are all collected here including “An August Night,” “Cavalry,” and “Avalon,” an affectionate ode to a village in Eastern France. Coastal has always incorporated elements of dream pop and the gentler side of shoegaze into its records and does so here on songs like the Spiritualized-flavored “Ashes” and the new song “Shivering.” Beneath the Snow and Streetlights is a welcome reminder of the spellbinding simplicity and unhurried elegance which still makes Coastal a model for artists at the nexus of post-rock and dream pop.