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| Track list: 1. Test Yourself 2. Karma Kard 3. Old Bridge 4. Ease 5. Don't Follow Me 6. Little Sea 7. Dan 8. Moline 9. Dad 10. Monk Running time: 43 minutes Released: 2015 |
Random pickup time. This came out last year sometime and I think Sea of Bees just happened to be rated "similar" to enough people I was interested in for me to pick it up. Can't remember a darn thing about it before I start though so it is a mini voyage of discovery.
Before I begin, I rather like the list of snappy track titles, but I can't help recalling Alan Partridge when I see the word "Dan" in isolation. That irrelevance aside, on to it. We are straight into vocals, no intro. A fast start, punchy rhythm, catchy. The voice is a little stretched thin for comfort - tight, a little shrieking - but full of life. Test Yourself is not the most interesting song you'll ever hear but the composition does have a jangling sort of appeal. Yesterday was a busy day with no chance to get to this; 13 people to cater for. This morning a swim was the most I had to deal with and so fitting in a listen on my penultimate full day away feels right. The song has moved on in time, but not in form - the catchiness that it exhibited up front has worn a little thin. 5 minutes was too long.
There's a more pleasing fuzz to the sound of the guitars on Karma Kard, a dirt and grit to the basis of the track that suits it. The vocal is fuller, too - achieved as much through the echo effect as from a change in how the song is sung, but welcome all the same. The song itself is so-so. It keeps the benefits of the less clean notes and vocal, but the composition is deathly dull. I find number like this particularly disappointing - where elements I like are driven to irrelevance by some unrelated factor that steals all the joy of that initial contact, sucking it out and blasting it into space. For all that, the song gives me hope that there will be something better to come.
Old Bridge seems to be that something better, right away. This song is very conventional, but has a perfect synergy between the high pitched vocal and the simple but effective guitar and drums forming the skeleton of the track. And it then has a variation that sets the voice off better. OK, so the music under that variation is basically a single note repeated too often but that provides enough of a contrast with the basic form that it still works. Definite improvement, do like. Not every song or artist needs to do something different to be interesting; implementing the tried and tested well can work too. I am trying to place who the vocalist reminds me of. I definitely have other female artists with this sort of tight-throated sound, but I cannot place a name right now. Frustrating. The vocal style changes as I finish that sentence - a quieter acoustic track with a less flat and tense sound, at least for the first couple of lines. There is a harmony effect in what I guess is the chorus, and here those tensions appear again. I wonder if the tightness is actually just a concoction of the overlaid voice (or voices). I am unclear from listening whether there is actual harmony going on, or an artifact of recording and overlaying from a single vocalist. I suspect the latter, and suspect that the truth lies somewhere in the middle - a naturally taut voice that is exaggerated by the effect.
Still, the quality of the output has picked up; not enough to have me looking to pick up more Sea of Bees material - it is a little too conventional to stand out that much - but certainly enough to enjoy that which I have. On to Dan, then, and with the obvious joke already made I only have the sounds to comment on. There is a keyboard part here that I find helps lift the otherwise fairly monotonous base. A dash of electronics in the high registers, and a wandering of the voice then spice the track up more. I find myself on the fence with it though - the vocal veers too far down the quirky for me and the basic pattern is mundane. Bits to like, bits not to like.
I think in another mood on another day, or listening in another context, I might like this rather better. I find that it is maybe just a little too standard for listening above anything else, but it would be much easier on the ears if my brain was free to do other tasks. I really like Moline though; best yet. It in some ways is the most mainstream and standard form track I have heard thus far, yet it is also executed really well, with a real care matching the vocal to the music. I guess sometimes everyone else got it right first? By contrast I hate the intro to Dad, where the voice is a hard-to-bear wail. Once the track proper gets moving it becomes much more appealing - the voice settles down and the pattern of the track sets an easily appreciated rhythm and flow. The pacing on the main riff works for me more than anything else. Simple and catchy, punchy between lines.
Final track Monk slows us down, sobers us up, sombres us out. OK, sombre is not a verb but so what. I prefer her voice when it goes contemplative like this, and I find that here that is backed up with a richer sound, whilst the drums are slightly tinny the horns are soft and expansive. It closes as my mind wanders, writing far less than I should have on a closer that leaves me feeling much more charitable about the whole record. I still can't see myself going in for more See of Bees material, but I have gone from lukewarm to positive about this one.
There's a more pleasing fuzz to the sound of the guitars on Karma Kard, a dirt and grit to the basis of the track that suits it. The vocal is fuller, too - achieved as much through the echo effect as from a change in how the song is sung, but welcome all the same. The song itself is so-so. It keeps the benefits of the less clean notes and vocal, but the composition is deathly dull. I find number like this particularly disappointing - where elements I like are driven to irrelevance by some unrelated factor that steals all the joy of that initial contact, sucking it out and blasting it into space. For all that, the song gives me hope that there will be something better to come.
Old Bridge seems to be that something better, right away. This song is very conventional, but has a perfect synergy between the high pitched vocal and the simple but effective guitar and drums forming the skeleton of the track. And it then has a variation that sets the voice off better. OK, so the music under that variation is basically a single note repeated too often but that provides enough of a contrast with the basic form that it still works. Definite improvement, do like. Not every song or artist needs to do something different to be interesting; implementing the tried and tested well can work too. I am trying to place who the vocalist reminds me of. I definitely have other female artists with this sort of tight-throated sound, but I cannot place a name right now. Frustrating. The vocal style changes as I finish that sentence - a quieter acoustic track with a less flat and tense sound, at least for the first couple of lines. There is a harmony effect in what I guess is the chorus, and here those tensions appear again. I wonder if the tightness is actually just a concoction of the overlaid voice (or voices). I am unclear from listening whether there is actual harmony going on, or an artifact of recording and overlaying from a single vocalist. I suspect the latter, and suspect that the truth lies somewhere in the middle - a naturally taut voice that is exaggerated by the effect.
Still, the quality of the output has picked up; not enough to have me looking to pick up more Sea of Bees material - it is a little too conventional to stand out that much - but certainly enough to enjoy that which I have. On to Dan, then, and with the obvious joke already made I only have the sounds to comment on. There is a keyboard part here that I find helps lift the otherwise fairly monotonous base. A dash of electronics in the high registers, and a wandering of the voice then spice the track up more. I find myself on the fence with it though - the vocal veers too far down the quirky for me and the basic pattern is mundane. Bits to like, bits not to like.
I think in another mood on another day, or listening in another context, I might like this rather better. I find that it is maybe just a little too standard for listening above anything else, but it would be much easier on the ears if my brain was free to do other tasks. I really like Moline though; best yet. It in some ways is the most mainstream and standard form track I have heard thus far, yet it is also executed really well, with a real care matching the vocal to the music. I guess sometimes everyone else got it right first? By contrast I hate the intro to Dad, where the voice is a hard-to-bear wail. Once the track proper gets moving it becomes much more appealing - the voice settles down and the pattern of the track sets an easily appreciated rhythm and flow. The pacing on the main riff works for me more than anything else. Simple and catchy, punchy between lines.
Final track Monk slows us down, sobers us up, sombres us out. OK, sombre is not a verb but so what. I prefer her voice when it goes contemplative like this, and I find that here that is backed up with a richer sound, whilst the drums are slightly tinny the horns are soft and expansive. It closes as my mind wanders, writing far less than I should have on a closer that leaves me feeling much more charitable about the whole record. I still can't see myself going in for more See of Bees material, but I have gone from lukewarm to positive about this one.
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