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Album Review
by SashaS
11-3-2004
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| Seachange: 'Lay Of The Land' mindset |
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Seachange: 'Lay Of The Land '
(Matador)
Seachange in a frankly scented allotment
One dead-sure feature with all new acts is the exigency to be well formed, defined and image’d - just ready for the short-sharp-shredding by ‘fame’. When outfits and artists find themselves in such a prefab realm, there is no room to manoeuvre and the old saying ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ appears to be sadly appropriate.
There are hardly any acts on the major labels’ books that are, or allowed to show, glimmer of hope with room left to explore, develop, change… The indies fare better and there is a band, Seachange, who just do that: their debut album is a calling card, a disc showing potential, great in parts but there is growing, learning and maturing to go. Epic moments are joined by some hypnotic flashes but the whole is far from a complete item.
The sextet hail from Nottingham and met at the University. Inspired by many - comparisons with The Smiths and The Waterboys (mainly due to Johanna Woodnutt’s violin) are common but unjust - Seachange make music that takes in different references but mainly art-punky with New Wave twists. It is also - pastoral, Gothic, softly rocking, swiftly burning on the inside… ‘Glitterball’ and ‘SF’ are the undisputed highlights here and point to directions that may be worth exploring in more depth.
Singer Dan Eastop likes to keep himself within the songs, serving music rather than fronting to gratify his ego. At times it sounds like he’s got charisma leashed in but the end result justifies the method, like on the dynamic-cum-complex ‘The Nightwatch’, or the intense ‘Forty Nights’… There is also the playful riffness of ‘Do It Again’ that may make an intriguing single (with some serious editing).
‘Lay Of The Land’ is not an instant album and it takes few spins to starts dispensing its inner goodies. It is uneven, occasionally vapid, but this is a debut record by a band that has spoken its language in a studio for the first time, still in the process of learning its grammar and punctuation.
Although this ‘Land’ ain’t a ripe melon, it certainly is infinitely better than anything that Epimetheus of pop - Simon Cowell - could ever pull out of Pandora’s box!
Seachange… Ambitious name but they appear to have penchant to deliver on the pledge. Still, it should have been Seacharge, methinks.
7.6/10
SashaS
11-3-2004
Seacharge’s album ‘Lay Of The Land’ is released 08 March 2004 by Matador
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