The third disc from Tampa Bay veterans The Semis, Back to the Beach, feels like a comeback record. The problem is, they never went away. In the past decade, frontman Billy Summer has gained a certain reputation as a user, abuser and all-around buffoon. However, Summer has been clean and sober for 11 months now, and in that time has written, recorded and produced the best work of his life.
Back to the Beach, is a psychedelic-surf masterpiece that was mixed and co-produced by Lemonjello Kane (Gravy, The Saturn 5) whom Summer credits as the "most talented fool on the album" and the only person thus far able to "translate the nuances" in Summer's head to tape.
While the production is cleaner this time around, with solos taking center stage when they need to and the vocals relatively legible throughout, the difference here lies in the lyrics. Where in the past, Summer's subjects have included Asian girls and cocaine, this time out they reference living on the beach, shopping for records in St. Pete ("Private Dicks"), finally kicking the habit ("Popov") and a newfound sense of optimism "Aren't we so full of life?/Do the sunrise with closed eyes ... Don't need no goddamn reason/I'm just so fond of life" ("Pelican Song").
Back to the Beach easily serves as a concept record about addiction and recovery, and while the beach acts as a backdrop here, it is also a motif that returns again and again to keep our attention on the illuminated path to sobriety and eventual redemption, like Antoine's escape to the sea in Truffaut's 400 Blows. We get glimpses of the early years: "I was hanging ten instead of going to school/then I moved across from the bar." In "Rock Ready," an apprehensive partner appears: "We'll float away out from the rest/on two foot waves that never crest" and in the Cheap Trick-influenced title track: "In the cities and in the towns/girls are leaving their indie hipster clowns/cuz they been holding you back so long/back from the beach where you belong."
Tracks like "New Surfboard" blend the whimsy and soft-spoken psychedelia of the Flaming Lips with the lushness of the Beach Boys, but the big payoffs are in the bombastic power pop and metal-infused rockers like "Suck it Dry" and "Primitive Mind" ("I'm only tryin' to make a million mine/you can't decline the reptilian mind ... that's always and forever/this laugh is weighed out and tethered/your town is made out of metal/beach life it don't ever get old").
Anthemic indie rocker "Metro" reveals touches midway of Interpol and The Cure, an influence that began to surface on 2006's "Timebomb," and the record is softened even more by a couple ballads - a re-recorded version of "38" and "Speed," an introspective acoustic piece: "Listen to your heartbeat/listen to it speed/Think about the drugs pushed around/where they need to be."
By far, though, the standout track here is "Popov," an orchestral arrangement of synthesizers and distorted guitars that provides a soul-baring glimpse at the road to recovery: "Before you wreck your life/Now that the spark is done vacating your eyes/Don't twist the top off that bottle of Popov (tonight)/We've got your back and everything's gonna be alright."
Overall, the production is down and dirty, recorded in sheds, warehouses and Summer's own living room, but some skillful mixing allows the album's masterful arrangements and melodies to shine. Steadfast fans or critics may say that with this record, Summer's maturing has stripped him of his bawdy, rock 'n' roll edge, but all the idiots that claimed his writing would never be the same "without the drugs" are absolutely correct. He's better than he's ever been.
5 Stars
(Full disclosure: This writer was a member of The Semis in 2002)
