This week Radio 1 hosted its tips for the year ahead in Maida Vale at the station’s Future Festival.
This time last year Bristol quintet Coasts were among the anointed ones, and here they are with a debut album, out today.
They sounded arena-ready back then, and the self-titled album keeps the polish levels high, with big choruses buffeted by cavernous drums and huge synth washes.
The speed of their rise becomes apparent on their song You, which is about the loneliness of the touring life. That’s traditionally a subject that bands only get to moan about on album two. You can file Coasts alongside British electronic indie bands such as The 1975, and American ones such as Imagine Dragons, though they lack the hint of weirdness of either.
This is big music for big venues and daytime radio. A Roundhouse gig for 3,000 next month shows that they’re very much headed in that direction.
Feb 26, Roundhouse, NW1 (0870 389 1846, roundhouse.org.uk)