San Cisco – San Cisco
Indie Rock – Released November 23, 2012 – 13 songs, 37 mins
REID’s album drop:
June 4th calls for a fun summer album. I’m taking us back to familiar TSR territory.. you guessed it, Australia. I stumbled upon this quartet about a month ago on an Apple playlist and think it’s worth a shot. Let’s see what the self-titled (2012) album from San Cisco has to offer.
REID
Australian artist(s) again! Pretty incredible how much great music is coming out of there the last decade+. How does San Cisco stack up? Let’s see.
San Cisco opens up with Beach, with an intro that made me think immediately of Stranger Things. The female vocal sections really didn’t do it for me on this one though. Next up is Fred Astaire. This is the song I found via Apple Music shuffle and was hooked immediately, leading me to this album choice. My mind drew parallels to Vampire Weekend’s A-Punk and my initial thoughts were ‘How haven’t I heard of this before?’ Such a fun listen and I really felt it may lead to that ‘fun summer album’ I noted in the album drop. Although it’s the album high point from me, I thought San Cisco did a good job of managing the album’s pace from here on out. My review notes are littered with the words ‘fun’ and ‘upbeat’. Awkward, Hunter and Metaphors are other notable tracks for me.
San Cisco delivered 37 minutes of fun. Apple Music’s about section for them states ‘Australian quartet San Cisco are known for their hooky, synth- and guitar-based sound that draws upon classic post-punk and jangle-pop traditions.’ Boy, did they hit the nail on the head. Like Lundi’s quote from Peach Pit’s You and Your Friends, San Cisco didn’t do anything groundbreaking here but it’s an enjoyable listen.
Overall Rating – 7.5/10
Favourite Song – Fred Astaire
ROZ
Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.
Yes I’m talking to you Australia, and yes that’s a quote from The Godfather Part III.
San Cisco is another band from that side of the earth that I’ve never heard of before, so I was excited to dig into another Aussie indie darling. As I was going through the album, it was definitely checking a few of the boxes that I had on my “am I enjoying this indie rock music?” list, specifically the ear pleasing chord progressions on the guitar and the crunchy warmth of the analog synthesizers they use. My two favorite tracks on the album come and go early on, those being Fred Astaire and Awkward (EP Version). Both of these share the same qualities: catchy guitar licks (not to mention a wicked solo at the end of Fred Astaire performed on what I hope is a keytar) as well as fantastic “call and response” techniques between the vocalists and clapping tracks throughout. These two songs will definitely be going on my summer cruise playlist for sure.
Unfortunately with these two in the rear view mirror, the next string of songs were pretty underwhelming (Hunter, Wild Things, & No Friends). Wild Things implemented some questionable backing vocal choices that I wasn’t really a fan of at all (the first song of the album, Beach, also seemed a bit off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time). While I did enjoy the “surfin’ USA” vibe of Lyall, I was once again underwhelmed by the songs that followed. I listened to Mission Failed a few times just to focus on how weak the drums sounded, which could be attributed to either the drum kit itself or the production and mixing in the studio. Regardless, these could have been beefed up a bit more to give a better sense of groove instead of sounding like what I can only describe as a wooden spatula hitting the back of a baking sheet.
Alright, I got a little carried away there. I really do enjoy the album's call/response, live crowd type elements that I bet sound great when you’re there in person. To me, it’s synthy summertime pop album that’s unfortunately combined with poorly mixed drums and somewhat strange vocal choices. It doesn’t hold up against the other indie-pop bands we’ve reviewed so far, and I made sure to take that into account when rating it.
Overall Rating – 5.7/10
Favourite Song – Fred Astaire
LUNDI
Foo Fighters. Led Zeppelin. The Doors. The Beatles. San Cisco. What do these bands all have in common? Well they all released self titled albums of course! But that’s about where the comparisons would stop. While it’s a tall task to stack up with groups of that ilk, San Cisco’s self titled album offers little satisfaction.
With each listen this past week I cringed more and more at the back and forth singing between the male and female band members, feeling like I was stuck in a bad karaoke bar in some weird twilight reality where Grease was remade in 2021 and these were the songs. The duet songs come off as gimmicky especially the track Awkward which apparently comes from a previously released EP. Amazing that they were convinced to release that twice.
There’s some good here don’t get me wrong, but the problem is the vocals and lyrics will always be the forefront of an album and that to me is San Cisco’s downfall. The album has some good production elements offering upbeat guitars and timely synths sprinkled in but you really need to dig deep to get past the chaotic singing here.
Even though it was only 36 minutes I couldn’t wait for this album to end each time. A lot of what the fuck moments with a few glimpses of promise.
Overall Rating – 4.2/10
Favourite Song – Fred Astaire