Have you ever sat in the quiet of your thoughts and reached a moment of clarity that almost instantly crafts a memory. Watching a sun set or waves crash over some rocks. Perhaps, you’re simply walking out of somewhere and take a deep breath of fresh air and it hits you. It is like a warm youthful summer day with no cares in a brief, yet impactful moment.

If you haven’t, then I’d like to first give you a digital hug and then hand you Freedom Fry’s Classic.

The ambitiously full debut from Marie Seyrat and Bruce Driscoll blends a collective twelve tracks nodding to folk while holding a sense of pop. The Los Angeles-based duo sinks their well-traveled, worldly-seasoned teeth into each song with an experience of alt rock and pop folk blend that is as delicately, yet naturally mixed as a glass of sun tea. The modern Americana of Classic breathes in stories of intimate friendships and memories laid out against a blend of acoustic instrumentals layered in a mix spotted with strings and horns. From the title track, handing out a soundtrack of summer, the rolling folk of “Cold Blooded Heart,” through the pebble-kicking stroll that builds into an angst of love in “Title Wave,” Freedom Fry writes to a very personal corner in each of us while refraining from becoming overbearingly downhearted. It is as if they snagged a moment of Peter Bjorn & John with Victoria Bergsman, borrowed a snippet of it, rinsed it in the sun-soaked California sun and pinned it on an old-fashioned laundry line to dry in the winds of Americana. Nurtured in love, it grows and calls with purpose, seething in appeal.

Surprisingly, Classic doesn’t bleed into repetition or dull in its own existence. Instead, each of the twelve tracks tells a different aspect of the same story with characters we quickly come to support and enjoy. The easy card here would be some witty quip about it being an “instant Classic” (see what I did there?), but to make such a statement is to imply we’re putting this one out to pasture. Instead, I like to experience this debut record in the vein of those warm memories that offer a sense of clarity and care-free warmth. That is Classic.

Photo: Michelle Shiers

Greg is a co-founder and Regular Contributor of Nanobot Rock.