The Frigidaires - Play It Cool (2024) CD-Rip

There is no better title than Play It Cool for The Frigidaires debut album. Filled with taut, reverb-laden melodies, the record makes writing hooks look easy. A quick survey of the tools—three guitars and a solid rhythm section—only disarms the listener further. It’s only upon closer inspection that songs reveal themselves to be the subtly intricate compositions they truly are.

This surf “supergroup” features the talents of Chad Shivers (The Mystery Men? and The Silent Knights), Nick Bazemore, Brad Mattocks, Matt Steadman, Sean Zearfoss and guest musician Ted Pilgrim (Satan’s Pilgrims). On this, their debut album, they deliver traditional surf instrumentals that show off the band’s songwriting skills and penchant for creating beautiful melodies, while adding in a bit of modern guitar crunch here and there. They sprinkle in a few surf vocal tunes as well, which while firmly rooted in the California surf/vocal sounds of the early 60’s, they also have a modern almost indie sound to them. All of the songs are originals written by the band, except a few which were co-written by Tim Moritz (The Manakooras) and Jet Powers. To top it off, the album has been expertly mastered by Dave Klein (The Bomboras and The Ghastly Ones), and the cover art is courtesy of Scott Suguichi. It’s rare these days to see a surf group record and release an album that contains instrumental and vocal tunes inspired by bands like The Hondells, The Rivieras, and all of the Gary Usher studio bands, so this band and album are a pleasant new arrival to the surf rock world.