After a seven year wait since their debut album, San Francisco’s French Cassettes are releasing their second full length record, Rolodex. Slotting itself right into the West Coast indie rock genre, the album can sit happily alongside others in the field while at the same time failing to really stand out.
French Cassettes are one of those bands that could just appear on a Spotify playlist out of the blue. Their sound is so pleasant and unobtrusive. Rolodex specifically is so easily palatable, it’s hard to imagine anyone truly disliking it. These tracks are the kind that slip into a Discover Weekly playlist without much input from the listener.
There are tracks that manage to shine through however. Utah is a great indie anthem and is the track to play for someone to sell them on the album. The guitar riffs and melodies are fantastic and capture the upbeat atmosphere of the album as a whole. Outside of tracks like Utah and City Kitty, the rest of the songs do begin to blend into one big indie song though.
Rolodex is perfect for housework or commuting. It has that West Coast vibe that goes perfectly with warm summer days too. It’s the kind of album that’s perfect in the background but as soon as you sit down to genuinely focus on the music you’ve already pressed skip.
French Cassettes sound so similar to most other bands of their genre it’s nigh on impossible to have a strong opinion on them independent of a general opinion on indie rock. For good or for bad, Rolodex is the very definition of agreeable.