Seahaven’s new album, ‘Reverie Lagoon: Music for Escapism Only’ takes the band into an awesome new direction. It’s rare to find bands that evolve so much from one album to another, but even rarer to find those that do it so well.
The whole album feels more honest and mature than Seahaven’s previous work. Now freed from the constraints of the purist hardcore scene that brought the band to success, Seahaven now opts for a more indie and shoegazy sound. It’s reminiscent of the turn Fucked Up pulled off with ‘David Comes to Life’, with cleaner sounds and a clear focus on production. Having said that, the apparent simplicity of the new tracks should not hold anyone back from experiencing the album. It’s so good that after listening to it, it was hard to come back to their previous sound.
While hardcore Seahaven fans might feel nostalgic about their harder distorted roots, it’s still the band’s history that sets this album apart from other post-punk acts. There are still catchy emo vocal melodies here and they feel like a unique youthful addition to an otherwise gloom-filled genre. This is definitely a gaze into the future shapes of post-punk.
It’s just like nothing they’ve made before. Yet the album confidently pays tribute to the influences that formed Seahaven’s current sound (even when at times these might be somewhat incongruous). For example, there’s an acoustic number in the midst of heavily-textured tracks, but it feels fresh rather than mood-killing. The fact is that it’s a more chilled out album as a whole compared to the rest of Seahaven’s discography. And while this could have risked a break from the general textured tonality of ‘Reverie Lagoon’, it just works. That’s because these guys really know how to build up and finish off with explosions. The quietest of tracks here always pays off with emotional epiphanies that sound massive.
This also means that it was hard to find a specific highlight. However, if it had to be done, the two outstanding tracks would be ‘Fifty-Four’ and ‘Andreas’, the album openers. The start of the album will kill you if you’re human. The trip is really that emotional once you get into it. ‘Whispers’ is also an amazing track. But then others come to mind too and that’s the point here. This is one of those excellent albums that will change over time the more you listen to it. It is by far the best work Seahaven have done and it comes to no surprise that they’re gaining so much attention for it.
GONZALO CERON