Seafood 'As The Cry Flows'
Since they were here last time around with 2001’s excellent ‘When Do We Start Fighting?’ Seafood have lost a guitarist and a record label. More worryingly, frontman David Line has suffered recurring complications from a collapsed lung. It’s not exactly been a picnic, then, but out of adversity comes strength and ‘As The Cry Flows’ is the band’s strongest album yet.
Always more versatile than their portrayal as young shouty guitar hopefuls would suggest, they’ve never been afraid to add folk or country touches to the alt rock palette, something the increasingly essential Cooking Vinyl clearly recognised. With ex-Billy Mahonie guitarist Kevin Penney now in their ranks the band’s sense of post-rock dynamics is even more acute, as witnessed on the opening ‘I Dreamt We Ruled The Sun’. As Caroline Banks sings lightly over Kevin Hendricks’ strolling bass line and a spectral whistling effect gives the song an air of a Morricone theme to a lost Leone western. There’s a tangible sense of power being restrained, power that is hinted at further as a menacing dual guitar riff is dropped in a little over half way through. It’s the sort of thing Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky would kill for.
But it isn’t until ‘Heat Walks Against Me’ that the band fully unleash what they’re capable of. David Line hints at a haunted existence “Left alone, alone at last / with cries that flow and follow us”, someone lays down a gentle, meandering guitar solo before the rest of the band come back in with a pummelling squall worthy of Sonic Youth at their best.
‘No Sense Of Home’ shows another side of the band, one that owes more to Nick Drake than Thurston Moore, and one where they show a kinship with co-producer Ian McCutcheon’s band, Mojave 3. Guitars are picked, drums are brushed and everything rocks gently as David and Caroline duet on the chorus to stunning effect and Ed Harcourt adds some Hammond organ that can only be described as ‘lovely’. ‘Orange Rise’ is in a similar vein with added banjo and is equally as captivating.
Elsewhere ‘Summer Falls’ reveals itself as a twisting hooky monster, the cover of ‘Willow’s Song’ from seminal 70s horror The Wicker Man is suitably whimsical and ‘Milk And Honey’ adds honky tonk bar room balladry to the band’s accomplishments.
And yet more highlights; ‘Sleepover’ is about as straight ahead pop as it gets, rattling along driven by an insistent bass line until the stratosphere scraping guitars burst in after two minutes (it’s like the best song the Smashing Pumpkins never wrote) while ‘Kicking The Walls’ gets under your skin with it’s distorted vocals and simple catchy riffs. Basically, every track here is a peach.
Unfairly maligned in the past for wearing their US underground influences on their sleeves, Seafood have weathered the storms of illness, criticism and major label shenanigans to emerge with a truly brilliant album. At the very least ‘As The Cry Flows’ should cement Seafood’s reputation as one of England’s greatest unsung treasures, and it could just see them gaining the critical and commercial success that they’ve long been due.
Seafood ‘As The Cry Flows’ (Cooking Vinyl) Released May 3 2004.
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