So subtle and restrained, you almost don't notice there's nothing else like it.
One minute into the first track on this album and your jaw should be somewhere around the top of your gut. If there was just one song that I had to play for someone to describe what the Sea and Cake sounds like, it would be "Jacking the Ball". It's like all Sam Prekop needed was Archer Prewitt to complete his musical sentences. And, as manifestos go, "Jacking the Ball" serves its purpose almost a little *too* well because while the rest of the record is good, nothing quite lives up to the promise of that first track. Although, the dueling riffs on "Choice Blanket" are quite tasty and the Neil Young-meets-Antonio Carlos Jobim vibe of the closer "Lost In Autumn" sets the table for lots of dreamy collages to come. But, as it stands, this album is a damn fine starting place and a perfect table setter.
~Austin
A fantastic step forward.
Striking while the iron was still very hot, the band turned in this second full length about eight months after their first. Things start off on a seriously weird note with the abrasive, organ drenched surf guitar rocker "Nature Boy" and then it gets even stranger, taking a sharp left turn with "Parasol" a mellow, introspective monster that still stands as a pillar of the band's live setlist. From there, it ventures back into territory pretty much already covered, except with some energy and even more focus on the Sam and Archer show. Seriously, these guys have mastered the jangly interplay. And the tempos are slightly pitched up here except for the last few songs, which provides the perfect balance for the album. Indeed, John McEntire's higher profile on this record is unquestionably one of its many upsides. The whole thing just feels like the revelation that the first album promised so intently. Great great great.
~Austin
The band hits its stride.
At the time, this was the band's third album in about 18 months, which would spell burnout for nearly any other group. But, instead, they delivered the finest of their opening trilogy of records. Everything here is absolutely wonderful. The integration of keyboards is fantastic and feels absolutely natural. True, as far as song structures and ideas go, there isn't much new being offered on this album, but this is less of a step forward and more of a fine-tuning of an album. So, even though it's not as much of an attention grabber as the first two albums, it's an infinitely more resonating one. It will sound a lot better with each successive listen. And then you'll notice the Krautiness of the super long and spacey intros to tunes like "Leeora" and "The Kiss" stacked next to the ultra pretty ballad "Darkest Night". A perfect note for the band to temporarily say goodbye on.
~Austin
A breezy and majestic masterpiece.
You know something's up when "Sporting Life" kicks off and you hear a small orchestra of keyboard sounds and electronic blips atop a nearly hip hop-ified John McEntire/Eric Claridge rhythmic base. There is nothing close to what you would expect a Sea and Cake guitar to sound like until the second track. And it's then, amongst "The Argument"'s two minute long, multiple percussion overdubbed intro that you realize: this album is gonna be good. The first two tracks are absolute monuments in the band's catalogue and they set the table perfectly for the rest of the album's decidedly electronic sound. Sure, there's some classic Sea and Cake guitar sounds (like on "There You Are"), but they are always accompanied by some sort of manipulation (in this case, a classic breakbeat loop). Overall, it feels like yet another revelation for the band. It's an endlessly resonating and enjoyable record that often feels like their best work. Just wonderful music.
~Austin
Footnote EP of remixes and odds n'ends.
This EP features three remixes of songs from The Fawn and two new electronic songs by Sam Prekop. The first two songs are very dancey and not all that interesting. However, Jim O'Rourke's revision of "Do Now Fairly Well" is at least interesting because it seems to have influenced the way the band plays the song live. Sam Prekop's two new compositions are good, but very unlike anything the band —or Sam himself, for that matter— ever had or ever would do. Overall, the remixes aren't a completely success and the new songs are haphazard at best, but this is just a between album EP, so I suppose they're entitled. It's always better to be confusing than crappy.
~Austin
A less electronic Fawn. And not quite as good (what is?).
When this album starts and you hear "Afternoon Speaker" you may think this album is just going to be one big rehash of The Fawn and... well, it sort of is. But that's not bad because where The Fawn was over the top electronic, this album seems to go out of its way to keep the lushness relegated to acoustic instruments (but there are some keyboards, just for good measure). Admittedly, they are repeating themselves a bit here, but it doesn't feel stagnant because the songs are all so good. In fact, as far as catchy songs and good riffs and melodies go, this may well just be their best album. It's certainly their most accessible. It's just that they've already used some of the sounds and ideas before. Nothing wrong with that when you can bang out tunes like "The Colony Room" and "Two Dolphins" and make them sound as good as they do here. To be perfectly honest, they could keep making this album over and over again with slight variations —and get away with it— because they're that good together and there's not really anybody else like them.
~Austin
Just so blatantly and unmistakably Sea and Cake — simultaneously good and bad.
This is probably their most electronic album yet. There is a much more pronounced dance beat underneath songs like "Hotel Tell" and "Four Corners", which feels awkward, but in a sort way that feels amateur, but still naive enough to pull off and make it work. Indeed, John McEntire is employing some sort of drum machine for most of the proceedings and the only person who doesn't play some sort of synthesizer is Eric Claridge. It feels very polished, in a good way and simultaneously very comfortable, in a bad way. I mean, just about every time out these guys can muster one or two absolute stunners and the rest of the record is coherent and complementary. But here, it almost feels like the songs they were less than excited about, instead of being fine tuned, just got dipped in some keyboards. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, because this record, while far from the band's best, is still leagues ahead of its peers. They are still one of the best bands ever and are nowhere near tarnishing their reputation if they keep making records like this, but it almost feels like the excitement that once allowed them to make otherwise not-as-great songs more interesting is fading away. However, as a really great closer, they do pop out one big surprise with an amazing cover of Bowie's "Sound & Vision".
~Austin
Sea and Cake as a dance band. A lot better than previous attempts have implied.
After the Two Gentlemen EP, I figured another remix EP would be another sort of pissed away attempt at a great Sea and Cake EP. I was wrong. This thing does its job perfectly. It's a bunch of remixes that bring out the dancier elements of some of the band's recent work and four great new songs. The Stereolab remix is surprisingly anticlimactic and the downpoint of the whole disc. The Broadcast mix of "Interiors" blends glitchy distortion with more ambient moments for a seriously weird mix, while Carl Craig's epic mix of "Hotel Tell" is a dance remix done right. It keeps the main elements of the original song intact, so as not to alienate non-dance music folks, but provides that thumpin' groove that anybody can get down to. However, the real reason most fans will be interested in this is for the new material by the band. "To the Author", with its quasi-dance beat appears in two variations, original and a makeshift dub version. "Traditional Wax Coin" is sparse and mostly instrumental, but the real winner is "An Echo In" which makes for a new chapter in the band's development. A fuzz distortion bassline and enough layers to rival Robert Smith's most intricate ideas, it is at once the band's poppiest and most progressive material yet. A promising record.
~Austin
A return to form? What form would that be?
In the weeks anticipating this album's release (after a four year lay off — their longest ever between full lengths), there were several comments advertising this to be the band's 'classic rock' album. And while, upon listening to it, that seems silly, it is certainly a change away from the electro-pop direction they hit so heavily on their last few projects. There are still some electronics and more contemporary leanings in the production department, but this is more or less a look back to the pre-Fawn sound. Or rather, a more accurate description would say that this album is like a slower Oui. "Crossing Line" sounds a lot like "An Echo In" and it's one of the band's better songs in a while outside of that song. And, surprisingly, it's one of the album's few uptempo moments. In fact, the entire record has a very pronounced melancholy. The sound is as light and breezy as ever, but it just feels kind of sad. The most obvious example of this is when Sam Prekop croons "I fell upon my own and I've been too down" on the album's highlight and title track "Lightning". The song is one of the band's best and sums up the album's sound perfectly. Overall, instead of feeling like a gloomy and regressive retread of albums past, it is very much a back to basics tour de force; the sound of one of the best bands ever regaining their balance after a shaky —however, not unproductive— transitional period. Excellent.
~Austin
More from the Everybody sessions.
Days after Everybody hit the shelves, the band released this digital-only EP. Three songs: one which is a lot more sprightly than the album ("All in Throws"), one slower tune that sounds a little like something from The Biz or The Fawn ("Breathless") and an instrumental that sounds a lot like something from the Glass EP ("Mis"). It's all quite good and makes for a nice appendage to an otherwise brief long player.
~Austin
