Seabear – We Built A Fire (Music Review)
By Andrew Duncan • Jun 22nd, 2010 • Category: Categories, Indie Pop, Music Genres, ReviewsSeabear
We Built A Fire
Morr Music
Rating: 4 out of 5
Link:
Seabear: http://www.myspace.com/seabear
Seabear’s We Built A Fire combines two styles together harmoniously. Utilizing psych-pop from the Elephant 6 days with early ‘90s Psychadelphia hum, their songs become tranced making this sophomoric release as cool and stark as the their Icelandic breaths.
These are pop gems you want to cling on to. We Built A Fire is easy listening while being celebratory and not comatose in any facet of the songs.
Even when the band dips into a more folksy/Simon And Garfunkel kind of soft-spokeness as in “Wooden Teeth,” the band maintains a syntax of danceability within wonderland of bluegrass elegance. The transition to a lazy country afternoon echoed by Beach Boys harmonies (“Leafmask”) only richens the mood. It only helps when they embellish the idea with the soft plucking of a banjo or the whispering gentleness of an auto harp.
Everything they do is with great care, even when they plug forward with the driving rhythms in “I’ll Build You A Fire,” incorporating organic elements of chamber pop into the mixture.
In this case, being a septet does not hurt whatsoever. They fill in notes and are careful not to be weighed down by one person, idea, or thing. It’s what makes this album move whether it’s that lonely and haunting piano on “Cold Summer” or the punk attitude (punk in context to what this band mostly does, at least) of “Wolfboy.”
Although not as rock tinged, Seabears would go great next to your digitally marked editions of House of Love.
Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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