“Huh, these guys sound kind of like Beach House, only less self-indulgent and abusing less heroine.” That’s my first thought when I chuck on
Seapony‘s September LP release,
Falling. I don’t know if Beach House is comprised of junkies. Probably not. They don’t have the balls. (Don’t you love it when people romanticize drug abuse?)
Anyway.
I can’t trust myself to give an opinion yet because I’ve been listening to a lot of D.O.A. today and my ears have to readjust to something so boppy and cute. Yeah, this album kind of strikes me as dinky. But let’s see what others have to say here:
Hardly Art (the band’s label) says their “debut LP
Go With Me was rife with humbly infectious shoreside ebullience”. Ebullience? Uh-oh, looks like someone’s been reading too much Pitchfork again!
Alright, alright, I’ll play nice…
So this cozy little threesome is comprised of Ian Brewer on the bass, Jen Weidl doing some guitar of her own and singing, and then her boyfriend (her “longtime” boyfriend, according to Hardly Art) Danny Rowland is on the guitar and he’s also doing the lyrics.
Hey, I hear some pretty slide guitar on track 7,
“Never Be”…
Okay, for the Indie kids – you guys will love this album. It’s cute, fuzzy, boppy, dubbed as “dream-pop,” and if your dreams consist of pink balloons, days at the county fair with cotton candy, a ferris wheel ride with your check-shirted boyfriend who wears black plastic-framed glasses and gives you daisies underneath a blue, fluffy-clouded sky, my god… you’ll shit your pants.
“Sunlight” is the climax here, for sure. I feel like going on a picnic. And maybe smoking some crystal meth. Aw, just playing, kiddies.
It’s the vocals that really turn me off; the Zooey Deschanel/Emily Haines/Victoria Legrand-type vocal. That breathy, overly-enunciated vocal. Ladies – it’s been DONE. Let’s move the hell on, shall we? Let’s try a
new style. Say it with me: INNOVATION. It’s a beautiful fucking thing. Especially when musicians and artists actually TRY it. (Seattle Weekly makes the same comparison: “…yes, the songs are samey–it’s always a placid surf-guitar lead, a melodic bass line, a steady, simple beat, and Jen Weidl’s wispy, consonant-averse singing…)
Okay, but there
is some super rad tremolo guitar on here. The drums sound like they’re played by a hyper six-year-old, but the guitar licks have a lot of simple sweet-spots. It’s soothing, sweeping, with pretty little picked-out licks and it’s definitely the most pleasing aspect of this LP. Some of the guitar playing reminds me of old ’50s bands when everyone covered the same songs and wore gold suits.
This album is sunny, it’s warm, it’s poppy… I wouldn’t call it dream-pop, though. If you’re going to pair up your music genre with the dreams of a human being, then it had better be unpredictable, surprising, random, nonsensical at times, heavy in imagery, rich in color, and thought-provoking. Unless the genre is referring to “dreamy”, like Ken and Barbie… like this album.
“See Me Cry” reminds me of Tiffany playing in a shopping mall, but the last track
“Nothing Left” actually reminds me of a modern take on a doo-wop song or something, and it ends the album on a slightly bright note compared to the rest of this cavity-causer.
“Huh, these guys sound kind of like Beach House, only less self-indulgent and abusing less heroine.” That’s my first thought when I chuck on Seapony‘s September LP release, Falling. I don’t know if Beach House is comprised of junkies. Probably not. They don’t have the balls. (Don’t you love it when people romanticize drug abuse?)
Anyway.
I can’t trust myself to give an opinion yet because I’ve been listening to a lot of D.O.A. today and my ears have to readjust to something so boppy and cute. Yeah, this album kind of strikes me as dinky. But let’s see what others have to say here:
Hardly Art (the band’s label) says their “debut LP Go With Me was rife with humbly infectious shoreside ebullience”. Ebullience? Uh-oh, looks like someone’s been reading too much Pitchfork again!
Alright, alright, I’ll play nice…
So this cozy little threesome is comprised of Ian Brewer on the bass, Jen Weidl doing some guitar of her own and singing, and then her boyfriend (her “longtime” boyfriend, according to Hardly Art) Danny Rowland is on the guitar and he’s also doing the lyrics.
Hey, I hear some pretty slide guitar on track 7, “Never Be”…
Okay, for the Indie kids – you guys will love this album. It’s cute, fuzzy, boppy, dubbed as “dream-pop,” and if your dreams consist of pink balloons, days at the county fair with cotton candy, a ferris wheel ride with your check-shirted boyfriend who wears black plastic-framed glasses and gives you daisies underneath a blue, fluffy-clouded sky, my god… you’ll shit your pants.
“Sunlight” is the climax here, for sure. I feel like going on a picnic. And maybe smoking some crystal meth. Aw, just playing, kiddies.
It’s the vocals that really turn me off; the Zooey Deschanel/Emily Haines/Victoria Legrand-type vocal. That breathy, overly-enunciated vocal. Ladies – it’s been DONE. Let’s move the hell on, shall we? Let’s try a new style. Say it with me: INNOVATION. It’s a beautiful fucking thing. Especially when musicians and artists actually TRY it. (Seattle Weekly makes the same comparison: “…yes, the songs are samey–it’s always a placid surf-guitar lead, a melodic bass line, a steady, simple beat, and Jen Weidl’s wispy, consonant-averse singing…)
Okay, but there is some super rad tremolo guitar on here. The drums sound like they’re played by a hyper six-year-old, but the guitar licks have a lot of simple sweet-spots. It’s soothing, sweeping, with pretty little picked-out licks and it’s definitely the most pleasing aspect of this LP. Some of the guitar playing reminds me of old ’50s bands when everyone covered the same songs and wore gold suits.
This album is sunny, it’s warm, it’s poppy… I wouldn’t call it dream-pop, though. If you’re going to pair up your music genre with the dreams of a human being, then it had better be unpredictable, surprising, random, nonsensical at times, heavy in imagery, rich in color, and thought-provoking. Unless the genre is referring to “dreamy”, like Ken and Barbie… like this album.
“See Me Cry” reminds me of Tiffany playing in a shopping mall, but the last track “Nothing Left” actually reminds me of a modern take on a doo-wop song or something, and it ends the album on a slightly bright note compared to the rest of this cavity-causer. 
