{"product_id":"coaster","title":"Coaster","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt’s been four years since L.A. indie-pop mainstays Massage last released new music. Now, they return with \u003cem\u003eCoaster\u003c\/em\u003e, a masterful 10-track album that finds the band facing the upheaval and uncertainty of adulthood the only way they know how: together, five longtime friends, turning out one Perfect Pop Song after another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wait was worth it. Massage have always seen themselves as music fans rather than proper “musicians,” and \u003cem\u003eCoaster\u003c\/em\u003e — their third LP after 2018’s \u003cem\u003eOh Boy\u003c\/em\u003e and 2021’s \u003cem\u003eStill Life\u003c\/em\u003e — still conjures memories of other eras: the braided rumble of The Cure’s “Pictures of You”; the radiant clang of Big Star’s “September Gurls”; the strobe-light sheen of Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Bring on the Dancing Horses”; the hazy strum of David Kilgour’s “Shivering”; even the post-Madchester swagger of prime Oasis, if you squint hard enough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet while facets of \u003cem\u003eCoaster\u003c\/em\u003e might feel familiar, here they add up to something greater, and rarer — a band that finally sounds more like itself than its influences. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’ve been labeled ‘jangle pop’ and lumped in with ‘fog pop,’” says Andrew Romano, guitarist and vocalist. “We even called ourselves ‘college rock.’ But we never really fit in anywhere. I think Coaster is where we embrace that in-betweenness. We’re a pop group, plain and simple. We don’t want to just remind you of some other band. We want to write songs you can’t shake.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is Massage’s finest full-length — a collection that can’t help but reflect how much its members have been through since Still Life. Bassist David Rager nearly lost his home in L.A.’s devastating Eaton Fire; he and his family have yet to move back. Romano’s father survived a serious cancer scare. Keyboardist and vocalist Gabi Ferrer married her partner Thaddeus Ruzicka, Massage’s resident photographer and video director, then had a baby boy last June. Alex Naidus (guitar, vocals) and Natalie de Almeida (drums) had a son of their own a few months later. Neither pregnancy came easily, or went exactly as planned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I guess that’s what growing up is — accepting you aren’t the center of the universe,” says Ferrer, who also created the album art. “That kind of became the theme of the record.\"  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Prefect Records","offers":[{"title":"LP - Powder Blue","offer_id":53215893455179,"sku":"R6468-6155","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a0764543793_16.jpg?v=1755697960","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/products\/coaster","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}