ALBUM REVIEW: Bloom – Carpool Tunnel

There’s something so undeniably cliché about the fairy-tale fantasies of rock and roll that so many spend their time getting lost in the labyrinth of. They’re the tales we’ve heard a hundred times, the ones we know like the back of our hand. They’re stitched so deeply into the fabric of our makeup that it’s unoriginality isn’t even questioned anymore. Once in a while, there’s an exception to the rule, variations on a theme, if you were will. Whilst San Francisco’s CARPOOL TUNNEL aren’t void of the usual tropes; you know, the classics like spending their formative years foraging away in their very own band-only frat house, spending money they didn’t have on a van, and undergoing a spiritual awakening; they were the guinea pigs of a technological test. They all met on Vampr – the music industry’s answer to Tinder – and hit it off. They ended up recording their debut single with a Grammy-nominated producer thanks to an email, and shacked up as the perennial poster-label for pop-punk Pure Noise Records as a band more akin to indie-pop and bossa nova than anything else. 

As CARPOOL TUNNEL’s debut album Bloom brings itself to life, it’s clear they’re living a fairy-tale fantasy of their own, albeit a little less cliché. Drifting off into the So-Cal sunset categorised under dreamy emo-tinged indie-pop, CARPOOL TUNNEL tells tales of self-discovery and self-growth that settle soundly into the Instagram captions and twitter timelines of teens the world over. 

Their thematic throes are a dime-a-dozen in their scene, and even more so across Bloom. They compare heartbreak to homesickness on Flora, and find themselves flirting unromantically with unrequited love on Empty Faces like we haven’t all been around that block before. Whilst their story isn’t so tried-and-true, their lyrical laments are a little lost in the breadth of bands that have come before, leaving a little to be desired. Let’s face it friends, haven’t we all heard “Dear, are you dreamin’ still? Lullabies got us high, now we’re ill” in a song somewhere before?

If their sermons on self-growth fall somewhat sure of the mark when they’re simply spending their time musing over their failed learnings in love, their ability to meld a confectionary cocktail of musical magic makes up for it somewhere. At its core, Bloom is an infatuation with indie-pop; pop open it’s hood and its made of stronger stuff, from bluesy bossa nova (Empty Faces), to halcyonid dream-pop (Learning To Listen) to radio-friendly indie-rock circa modern-era KINGS OF LEON and THE KILLERS (I’ll Be Your Friend). There’s even detours into the jingle-jangle dance-punk-meets-indie-pop of British festival favourites BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB and TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB. So much of their sound rests solely on the interplay between the tenacious tones of guitarist Bradley Kearsley and the tie-dye lullaby croon of vocalist Ben Koppenjan. 

On one hand, they’ve cut themselves away from the clichés and carved themselves a nest within a niche on a label that’s better known for keeping score on pop-punk and post-hardcore playing fields. On the other, they’ve slipped a little too softly into the comfortable crutch of a scene that sped by, caught in its catchy hooks a few years too late to truly be breath-taking. If you can push past any of this and simply drift off into their sunset sonata, you’ll find four friends who find indie-pop far too fun a playground to break out of for for the foreseeable future. In a world where we’re all locked up in our bedrooms, why not live a little for the things you love, eh? 

Rating: 6/10

Bloom is set for release February 26th via Pure Noise Records. 

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