Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Hailing from Nuremberg, Germany, indie pop duo Nick & June unveil their new EP, Beach Baby, Baby, out everywhere today. Comprised of Nick Wolf and Suzie-Lou Kraft, the pair have orchestrated a signature sound, evoking feelings of longing, love, and other prevalent cinematic tropes throughout their discography and visual aesthetic. Forming in 2011, they have released two albums: Flavor & Sin (2013) and My November My (2017).
Beach Baby, Baby comes after a six year gap in their releases, allowing them a chance to rest and ruminate on new ideas. The seven-track EP comes as a concise, but grandly conceptualized body of work, possessing all the elements intrinsic to their decades-long sound, yet amplified to reach greater heights.
Their luscious, cinematic offerings delicately combine folk and pop stylings to create a highly-romanticized and unifying collection of songs. Inspired partly by French New Wave cinema, the EP stuns as a time capsule of nostalgic sounds. With five original songs and two covers, the pair intricately reference both the past and present while feeling altogether timeless.
“We have always been inspired by various things to write our songs and stories, from French New Wave to movies by Sofia Coppola, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson, Xavier Dolan or Greta Gerwig,” says Nick Wolf. “During the pandemic, we watched many classics of film and all-time favorites… Maybe that’s why the overall concept of the EP has a cinematic touch.” These touch points bleed into their work, creating an arch that ties each song together.
“Bonjour Tristesse (Intro)” serves as an apt introduction to the 1960s French noir hallmarks of the songs to follow. The whimsical dream pop of single “Anything But Time,” (something they’ve had much of since their last release,) sets the story in motion with a female protagonist in the throes of languor and longing.
The track’s music video depicts the song’s story in a vintage haze, Super 8 camera and cinematic ideations fueling its narrative. With French flair, there are distinct nods to film clichés of decades gone. Imagine Françoise Hardy if she entered Andy Warhol’s Factory, soundtracked to the lullaby of a forlorn lover, and that is what Nick & June have elegantly captured.
Each song on the release can be interpreted through the lens of a story character, or as an installment of a film, fullfilling various archetypal tropes. From the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, to the celestial “Starman” and even the lovesick fool, there is a strong sense of storytelling and cultural commentary embedded behind the guise of every song’s dreamlike qualities.
The swaying cadence of “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” reflects on the literary archetype made famous by Truman Capote in his characterization of Holly Golightly. Lyrically it leans into the cautionary tale of falling for a one-dimensional person, and stylistically it coos with both band members overlapping vocals in an interwoven hush. It is a love song and a warning all in one, cautioning that “your Manic Pixie Dream Girl is the end.”
On “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” a take on Elvis Presley’s classic love song, the duo lean into their sentimentality with haunting whispers of devotion. Stripped back to little instrumentation, this track highlight’s their penchant for minimalistic arrangements, opting for blended vocal harmonies atop acoustic guitar and muted percussion. Wolf and Kraft compliment one another beautifully; the layering of their vocal placements, with Wolf taking lead on the majority of the song, feels light as air and heavy with desire, perhaps continuing the narrative of falling in love with someone out of your control or against your better judgement (enter: Manic Pixie Dream Girl).
The idiosyncratically titled “Hugh Grant & His Consequence” coyly name checks the controversial actor in a woozy pop tempo. “We love to play this game with different points of contact – especially if they are perhaps a little misleading at first,” noted Wolf in the press release. “We wanted to tell a story between a ‘coming of age’ trope of departure and the melancholy that follows. The poetic persona writes a letter to a former (or maybe a parallel) version to him/herself and that melancholy returns eternally after all. We want to crank up associations. How the listener interprets all this and what happens in the inner cinema? That’s up to you.”
“Lip Sync to Love Songs” calls on youthful innocence before being struck down by life’s harsh realities. (We party and lip synch to love songs/ Come over/ but who knows forever as always?) Depicting scenes of partying while blissfully ignorant and falling headfirst into love despite knowing it is fleeting, this naivety is deconstructed by the ugliness of the world’s cruelties like drunk driving and heartache. Lyrically, they wax poetic (Even the walls lie to me in the deepest blue of all) in some of the EP’s most beautiful lyricism and reflections. Painfully relatable, listeners are hypnotized into an ultimately cathartic reflection on the moment childhood’s innocence is lost. The accompanying music video is comprised of vintage spliced home video footage à la 2010 Lana Del Rey, clips of children and sports cars fueling the chilling narrative.
A cover of David Bowie’s 1972 hit, “Starman” concludes the release, reimagined with an orchestra of fluttering synthesizers, trilling organs, and pulsing drum beats that reverberate throughout the track. Rising into a climactic apex, the song concludes with satisfaction, portraying an ethereal tale that encapsulates the characterized tales of each song.
With euphorically orchestrated restraint and meditative ramifications of thought, Beach Baby, Baby is a breezy and buoyant EP supplemented by the innate chemistry of the duo’s vocal interplay. With a visual aesthetic that is as much apart of their music as the actual composition of the songs, even their subjects revolve in a cinematic realm.
Their charming, pastoral pop occupies the sphere that prominent acts like Beach House, Belle And Sebastian, Angus and Julia Stone, and TV Girl live. Nick & June are surely a name to soon be tacked onto this list, with their sophisticated musings on life, love, and art. Beach Baby, Baby is a stunning embodiment of the amalgamation of these sentiments, viewing their unique musical world through a sepia-hued lens.
La fin.
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