The Sea And Cake - Everybody (Thrill Jockey)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
When you're spun around until the point of dizziness, you'll often discover that there's a bizarre sleepiness that often comes along with the delirious nausea that results from the experience. 'Everybody' is soothing, slumber-inducing (not 'boring', the two things are very, very different) in a similar way, and it's all to do with The Sea and Cake playing ever so slightly discordant melodies in a very soft, considered and friendly way - a way that confuses you in to thinking that this might be really simple music. But me oh my, it ain't.
Despite the trickery to it, there's always a huge yet understated chorus of the most melodic kind that exists at the heart of these songs, and, you thinking music fan you, what you'll like most about it is what an interesting a way of songwriting this is. In fact, it's probably one of the most difficult skills a musician can master. Dismiss or devalue it not, clamour seekers amongst us. There are things to love in intelligent indie besides dissonance.
True, that the whole LP is sung in whispers leaves you thinking that you'd love to hear a singer really going for these notes like his life depended on it, but the reserved nature of the vocal performance really does suit these lilting melodies spectacularly. The basics of grand songwriting are easily apparent however, it's just all in the way they're delivered - 'Too Strong', for example, if t'were twice as fast, twice as loud (though obviously the volume you play it at is up to you, but you get the idea here), and if those solos were taken to their logical, clamorous conclusion, you'd have yourself a Dinosaur Jr. song. A really great Dinosaur Jr song.
That's almost what what 'Crossing Line' is, though it remains decidedly nonchalant about things like pace and panic despite being the most fuzzed up thing on the record. The Sea and Cake are in no rush for you to like them, and care not that this album takes a while to really love. They know that it's inevitable its spell will work its magic on you at some point during your ownership of it. It's either deceptively simple, or really intricate and bafflingly clever. Either way, when was the last time you thought so hard about melody so supple?
'Middlenight' is the kind of thing The Shins would turn in to an anthem, or Iron and Wine would underpin with serious doom. The Sea and Cake just let it do its thing, refusing to force any issue. And it's for this reason that the whole thing is so very breezy - even down to the beautiful packaging, which shimmers as much as these handsome songs. It might not be anthemic or euphoric, but a better sombre album for a thinking man's summer you aren't going to find.
'Exact To Me', with its vague jazz leanings, is the most challenging thing on this least difficult yet most rewarding of albums, reminiscent of the work Yo La Tengo did toning things down a bit on the vastly underrated 'Summer Sun'. It needs to be here - these musicians need to show off just a little bit, because they're very, very competent. 'Lighting' continues this double bill of comparative oddness, but it's only curious for a few bars before it falls in to the 'luscious' category everything else here happens to exist in also.
And yes, it does get a bit samey. Do I know what's about to happen in 'Coconut' because I've listened to this album so much, or because it sounds like something that happened not too long ago on a preceding track? I'm not sure. I'm not sure I care. But I see your point if you think it's boring. Every track exists at the same volume, tempo and aggressiveness all the way through. 'Introducing' gets particularly yawnsome, especially in that it suggests it's going somewhere thrilling but then is too lethargic to finish the sonic anecdote it started. 'Left On' fares better, all swathes of sound and distant chaos, but it's still relatively tame, and at nearly five minutes, feels very long compared to the three minute nuggets of sunshine that make up the rest of the album.
It ends with a sigh, not a shout, with a whisper, not a bang. Not that it was ever going to be any other way - a riot at the end of this one long lie-down in a meadow would be frankly horrid. And yes, the musical palette here is a decidedly restricted one, but if you like a bit of it, you're gonna like all of it. And if you don't like a bit of it, you just haven't listened to it enough yet.
Stream 'Crossing Line' from 'Everybody' HERE.
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