Eric Frisch is a New York musician with a keen indie pop sensibility. His newest album, Music Under Sea, is indebted to pop from the 50s and 60s, especially that of The Beach Boys and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. The title is taken from a poem by T.S. Eliot, and it’s a rather fitting one, because with some production techniques stolen from newer bands like Best Coast and Real Estate, the entire record is saturated in lo-fi reverb.
The ambitions on Music Under Sea are purposely mixed. Some songs like the buoyantly fun “The Light Ahead” are intended to be taken for face value as pure sugar-coated pop, whereas other like “Drift Away,” with its orchestral crescendo have a much larger sense of scope. In a nutshell, not only are you getting songs in the spirit of “Fun Fun Fun” Beach Boys, but Pet Sounds Beach Boys as well. An unexpected treat on the first half is “Heaven”—an inexplicably yet joyously country-gospel romp that amongst all the surf and fuzz still finds a welcome home.
Music Under Sea has neither an entire foot in the music of the 60s or the pop today it inspired, but will nevertheless have fans who love either.