It’s the time of year where most of our “favorite new music” is poppy, bubbly and a seemingly fitting soundtrack to the warm days that come along with summer. Sunshine pop, driving anthems, the whole nine yards (or so), are filled to the brim with new tracks that are feel-good and as bright as the days that come along with this season.

In the midst of all that, The Silhouette Era has given summer releases a new meaning with their full length album Beacons. The 10-track release is meddled with “dream wave”, pop elements and gives you a nostalgic, effervescent feeling. However, it’s made up of contradictions. It’s the soundtrack to your summer, but really only your San Francisco summer. Which means that it’s dark and foggy and to some extent has an element of melancholy attached to it, but somehow you’re still willing to drive with the windows down and with a smile on your face.

That’s where this album finds its strong suits: in a concoction of lyrical imagery that range from death to heartbreak that is placed over the graceful and dreamy melodies that the band creates. From the opening track “Devotion”, which opens with a eery yet graceful synth and erupts into a pop-anthem that is fit for repetition in your summer soundtrack to the closing track “Future Monuments”, which calls back to the aforementioned synth melody, and is the theme to late, pensive nights, Beacons emulates the realistic spectrum of a true San Francisco summer. For that you can’t be mad, but rather, happy at the authenticity that The Silhouette Era keeps in providing the theme songs to Bay Area residents throughout these three confusing months.

The Silhouette Era, bAd bAd, Dot Vom
Brick & Mortar Music Hall
Thursday, July 30, 2015
8pm, $6 (18+)