If you are a sucker for jangly retro garage surf bands, like I am, then there is a reason to celebrate this spring as The Pesos release their much anticipated new album Laissez-Faire (Lolipop Records). You might recall the Pesos released two EP's in 2017, Casual Encounters #1 and Casual Encounters #2. These two releases succeeded in broadening the sound of the Pesos, moving them beyond another band that fits seamlessly on another Beach Goth Festival lineup. Similarly to the Growlers and other modern surf bands like Allah-Las and The Babe Rainbow, The Pesos actually surf, and there's an intangible quality to their music that honours the image or idea of the lonely surfer, while carving out a space unique to them.

Of the ten songs that makeup Laissez-Faire, seven are carried over from the Casual Encounters EP’s. Although initially, this might seem like a bit of a letdown to those craving to catch the next wave of new material, the older songs seem to have an improved quality, whether the arrangement is different or vocals have been re-recorded. The first three songs on Laissez- Faire revisit three of the strongest, up beat tracks from the two EP's.  High Hopes opens the album with rays of guitar sunshine as the bass and drums bounce along, it's only when Yann Pessino's bummed out observations take hold that you realize, if he's not knocked down by the next breaking wave, it might just be a broken heart. 

Atomic Love is arguably one of the best songs that The Pesos have written. it's been playing in my mind upon first hearing it in 2017, it's nice to know the the musical synth and guitar outro still sends salt water chills down my back. Yann Pessino's lyrical observations serve as a nice counter point to the often jangly and infectiously poppy music arrangements found on the more party worthy tunes. On Atomic Love as the song bounces along with upbeat buoyancy, the singer confesses

"I been thinking it over, trying to find a way,

and I can't control myself,

It's not right staying up all night, Hypocondric,

My head is running round my heart.."

With the eventual realization

"Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe

and to love you.."

The back and forth between the main vocal and back up responses are downright addictive, begging to be sung over and over. Throughout the album Pessino's peeling the band-aid and letting the salt water sting.

From The Moon To The Sun fades in with a jangle befitting a song from the Children Of Nuggets box set. It's guitars have a circular buoyancy befitting the song's analogy of lovers as the Sun and Moon, and the reality that one really can't exist without the other. 

B Sides is the first of the new fare and the closest The Pesos have come to sounding like a post millenium NYC garage band. The song does a good job of keeping up with the more familiar offerings on Laissez-Faire, and with repeated, listens their melodies beg repetition and present themselves in harmony with the rest of the album. 

Blue Schwinn proves that there might just be a couple of Smiths albums in the band's record collections, or really any of the jangle bands of the Paisley Underground movement. It's not hard imagining that you are taking a ride on the titular vessel, wind in face, coasting the coast. Dream Frequencies shimmies along the desert floor while we dream of lovers floating up into the sky pondering what does it all really mean? 

I was thrilled to see stand out slow burners Not Alone and Star That You Are have worked their way onto the album. Both possess and untangible heaviness in it's mood and malaise, that pulls right at those heartstrings. Star That You Are sounds like a lost Joy Division track dug up on a beach in Southern California under a full moon, sounding more "Beach Goth" than the Growlers have in years.