Brighton’s Seadog return with this pulsing piece of dynamic space-pop whose whispered and beautifully captured voices feel at once human and yet strangely detached- a digital signal beamed through cold space- appositely reflecting the song’s lyrical themes of isolation and impotent rage.
Dynamics are always important to Seadog, and this new single, helmed once more by Mark Benton and Tom Chadd, is no exception – shifting between its verse’s deft delicacy and the broader, fizzed-out moments of sweeping sound that propel the repeated chorus- it’s an engaging and enticing thing indeed. Never has someone at war with anything (let alone everything) sounded so detached, resigned, and hopeless – but that is the entire point here: this is a war without substance, a futile raging, a fell voice hurled into the digital void. But time has clearly been spent crafting both concept and melody, and, in contrast to the song’s bleaker themes, Seadog summon their usual eloquent sonic sensibilities to susurrate to the soul.
It makes sense that this carefully curated, subtly augmented sound world previously reached the approving ears of Jason Lytle, as Grandaddy is a clear sonic cousin here, with further echoes of mid-period Flaming Lips at times, too. But Seadog feel like a group fully in control of their own vision here – not simply being swept along on the tide of their influences, as enjoyable as that may have been. It’s good to have them back.
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)
