Coasts have been around for a few years now (well six in fact) and they’ve made a huge impact on the alternative rock/indie pop scene in the UK. Now they’re back with more, releasing their second album: This Life, Vol 1. Sophie Turrill reviews the ten track masterpiece.

The five piece (made up of vocalist Chris Caines, guitarist Liam Willford, bassist James Gamage, drummer Ben Street and David Goulbourn)  met at university in Bath and have been producing, recording and performing hits since 2012 – getting radio play from Huw Stephens in their first year – quite impressive.

Take Me Back Home opens This Life, Vol 1 with quiet a slow but really nice instrumental few bars, it soon picks up in the chorus though. However, after listening to the whole album I think they could have put this track slightly lower down order wise, just because it doesn’t have the same oomph as some of the other tracks which would grab your attention a little bit more. Not bad by any means however.

The second track, Heart Starts Beating, was released as a single earlier this year and has already been getting quite a bit of airplay –  listening to it once you can see why. It’s a really catchy tune, more pop than alternative rock, with great vocals and instrumentals. The only downside is that it’s slightly overplayed (or is a downside?!) which makes reviewing it slightly harder, but thats when you know its been successful.

Let Me Love You, has a Niall Horan air about it at the very beginning but soon turns into the Coasts sound we love. One of my favourite tracks on this record, it’s quite stripped back and vocally lead at the beginning but soon builds up. The chorus definitely has that wow factor and the harmonies are on par. When I was writing notes on this track I put ‘bet it sounds good live… end line is a corker’ so I’ll leave it at that!

Paradise is yet another good track on the album, again another poppier sounding song but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a feel good song, with a belter of a chorus and even though summer is almost over in the UK, it’s song that we can just about get away with playing while wearing a tank top and mini denim shorts.

Personally for me, Come On Over and Tomorrow are the weakest tracks on the album. Come On over has a really nice melody and lyrics but needs to add a bit more heavy guitar to give it the wow factor, and tomorrow just sounds a little bland compared to the rest of the tracks on the album. Not awful by any means but when the rest of the tracks are such a high standard there’s always going to be one that falls behind.

Make It Out Alive has a really great built up courtesy of Willford’s and Gamage’s guitar magic. It makes your head bob and feet tap and any song that can do that gets a thumbs up in my book. Quite a complicated song with a lot of depth; there’s something in it for everyone. Chase The Night on the other hand couldn’t be more different, the slowest song on the record; the bass and vocals really stand out, quite simple compared to some of the other tracks on the album.

White Noise is another great song with a good build up. Lyrics wise it’s quite a cute song and definitely has the potential to make the girls smile (and boys) – ’cause it did me. For me personally it should have been the penultimate track, but when you’ve got the album on shuffle anyway does it really matter?

The final song, Born To Die has some really exciting vocals which make this track stand out. The chorus let’s it down a tad (the verses are slightly better) which is unusual because typically it’s the other way around. But either way I can see why it’s their final track, it has that sort of feel to it – maybe it’s because of the choir joining in with vocals at the end. One thing I can tell for sure is that it will be amazing when it is performed live – especially when it’s just Caines and the audience singing (and the lights go up and it’s you and your friends singing at the top of your voices, slopping drinks everywhere cause you’re loving the moment…)

Overall, This Life, Vol 1 is another great triumph for Coasts. This album has a bit of everything, and they give each track a modern twist to the stereotypical alternative rock/ indie pop tracks out there already. It has a few stand out songs such as Heart Stops Beating, Born to Die and White Noise but I’m really excited about this album and the future of this band. If they were getting airplay and selling out shows before, they’ll be getting twice as much airplay and selling twice as many shows after this latest record release. Bravo.