June 2023 has already become something of a celebratory month for prodigal musical sons, with The Soap Opera’s six-year hiatus being ended by today’s release of this wonderful Back on Tracks album, while the Bunny album ended the 7-year wait for new music by Beach Fossils last weekend.

Somehow the link between the two does not seem quite so sporadic as mere coincidence with Golden Springs S.A.S. and the simply superlative standout of Magic Number moving through the same sort of spacey, isolated jangly riff atmospheres that Beach Fossils convey whilst always gently grasping at their own signature subtle psyche inflected sound to make it unequivocally theirs.

In fact, such soft psychedelic persuasions affect all of the nuances of sound on this album. In Who Ate The Last Phoney Oreo, Don’t Be A Stranger, and Sword Fight at the Beach House, it offers a subtle conflict to the mix of Belle and Sebastian twee and The Hepburns’ sophisti-pop and adds just enough edges to the aesthetic to ensure that the tracks are not consumed by cutesy. It’s a conflict that turns any semblance of schmaltzy into undeniable and definitive cool.

The finest of the psych tinges are juxtaposed with the best of jangly indie-pop modernity, with a dominant The Hidden Cameras style percusssion, U.S. Highball languid melodies, and slacker vocals dominating glorious tracks such as Rise and Fall of Teenage Hooper, Spacin Out, and Toddler Time being the perfect examples of The Soap Opera’s omnipresent attention to melody.

Possibly the most “immediate” album of the year so far from Rennes, France finest and A Howlin Banana Records label that seem to find the best of psyche in the coolest of places!

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