EP Review: The Coasts ‘Santa Fe’

Thought on Tracks favorites The Coasts have arrived with a fresh batch of songs for your listening pleasure, just in time for the holidays. Today brought the digital release of the band’s Santa Fe EP. It picks up where The Coasts left off on last year’s self-titled debut, sculpting straightforward rock songs with an ear for their heroes and a steady gaze on the road ahead.

Santa Fe kicks off with the title track, a song more brash and cocksure than anything off the debut. Ike Peters leads a battle cry that takes shape in the form of a call and response with the grisly power chords of his guitar. “Santa Fe” is one of those tracks that feels as if you’ve been toting it around for years. In fact, I spent the better part of three days wracking my brain and turning my iTunes library upside down in search of its inspiration, to no avail. At just more than two minutes, “Santa Fe” is an all-too-brief kick in the pants that serves to snap the listener to attention.

The title track gives way to lead single “No One’s Listening”, which we featured in this space a few weeks ago. Eric Mount rolls out the red carpet with a marching beat on the snare while Peters ponders the fickle taste of today’s fractured musical climate and the fear that all of this proves meaningless without an audience. Follow-up “Homebody” finds The Coasts bouncing through a jaunty melody that calls to mind Ryan Adams’s “To Be Young” or Arctic Monkeys’ early material.

“My Own Fault” is arguably my favorite of Santa Fe’s five tracks. I’ve got a soft spot for fuck ups, and here we find Peters lamenting his inability to straighten things out despite the best intentions. Peters’s desire for approval is palatable as his voice breaks in the second verse on the line “Oh tell me I’m so good! I need to hear those words! / I want to hear you say that I’m worth keeping.”

Mount takes the reins on lead vocals for the EP’s final track “Old Man.” It’s the most heavily produced of Santa Fe’s five songs, with flourishes of horns and strings that add depth without distraction. It’s a satisfying end to a release that achieves an astonishing breadth of emotion for an EP. Pre-order your limited edition copy of Santa Fe EP via Bandcamp for $8. As with all of The Coasts releases, a portion of the proceeds will benefit Hope for Haiti’s Children. Check out their debut Daytrotter session, featuring a handful of tracks from the new EP and their debut.

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Written by Rob Peoni