Early this year, "Polka Dot" came like a gift to dedicated carwash / Postcard Boy fans. Over the years, Garrett Seamans has created a sonic multi-verse through his two music projects, both and separately carries a mysterious, yet intimate facade with his unique visual languages and tender touch to storytelling. Taking a slight turn from his focus on carwash in the past few years, the arrival of the latest Postcard Boy album, Somewhere On A Hillside, comes with Seamans' decision to return to the story of Postcard Boy, and the tale of an imaginative postman from the California hillside houses.
A conscious decision to return to his more mellow, introspective project after building a dedicated indie fanbase with the more hyperpop, electronic-focused carwash, Seamans gets to experiment with a more bright palette and a more well-rounded sound with Somewhere On A Hillside. Songs like the title track, the lead single "Polka Dot," as well as the exhilarating "when tomorrow comes, we'll be nothing but a fading feeling," serve as some of the most poignant and summery pop tracks from the Postcard Boy discography.
But what truly glisten like the last sparkling lights on the Pacific Coastline are the more delicate, soft-spoken moments on the album. With "My rock song" came as a lovely surprise ballad leading up to the album release, and songs like "A whole lifetime" ringing mastery song-crafting reminiscent of artists like Dijon, not to mention the focus track and album closer, "Horizon," nicely closing off the narrative with an indescribable timelessness.
Somewhere On A Hillside turns out to be something like a music diary, intoxicatingly sweet at times, drowsy with lingering reminiscence when needed and nevertheless, nostalgically perfect. It's what Postcard Boy fans have been waiting for this whole time, and what its mastermind behind has envisioned and waited for over the years.
