Dirty Heads - Cabin By The Sea

Hailing from Huntington Beach, California, it seems that the Dirty Heads have the right global positioning to pull off an album perfectly tailored for a summer day. Completely uncontrived and refreshingly relaxing, their sixteen track offering ‘Cabin By The Sea’ is perfect for the current climate.

‘Arrival’ opens with a delicate acoustic guitar, layered over sounds such as lapping waves and seagulls calling. These little quirks are subtle, yet they give the track a sense of authenticity and add another dimension to a wonderful acoustic number. ‘Dance All Night’ has a Latino flavour alongside their reggae rock sound, meshing rapping and soaring vocals to create a number with a tight bounce that provokes the urge to move.

Summer tracks are a real delight to come across, and ‘Cabin By The Sea’ is crammed. ‘Spread Too Thin’ is relaxed but holds that reggae bounce and light chorus that becomes ingrained in your head after a mere listen. ‘Day By Day’ is another seasonal number; relatively restrained compared to other tracks initially, it’s simply quirky and nice to listen to.

A real highlight is ‘Your Love’, which features Ky-Mani Marley. As the lyrics proclaim ‘Your love gets me so high, like we were listening to Bob Marley…’, it proves to be one of the moments that solidify this record as something great. Finale ‘Farewell’ is an instrumental to end the musical journey, recalling all those specific nuances that appeared in the opener to truly top and tail the release.

The real beauty of ‘Cabin By The Sea’ is that it feels authentic. Despite being considered ‘reggae rock’, there are other influences and elements there throughout - be it strong or subtle - and regardless of what the mix is, it never feels overproduced or as if they were trying too hard. It’s an ideal summer album for lying out in the sun and relaxing.