Yes, that comma is meant to be there. Alas, is the Burlington, Vermont indie-folk-rock artist’s second album, following on from 2021’s Beside Myself.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest, and it’s rather inconsistent across the record. There is no doubt that Lily Seabird (or Lily Seward as she was born) can write excellent songs, because there are several on here. For example, ‘Twenty’ with its country-ish feel is lovely. ‘Over And Over Again (Searching For You In The Space)’ is beautiful and dreamy, and ‘Domino‘ and ‘Waste‘ are other solid tracks on the album.
However, the quality even within songs can vary wildly. ‘Cavity,’ for example starts off well and I love the saxophone on it, until a guitar comes in, seemingly from another place. it may be aiming for avant-garde, but the end result is a mess. Unfortunately, there are songs that are rather hard to enjoy. The album’s bookended by two tracks that really are not up to scratch: ‘Take It’ and ‘End Of The Beginning’ and it doesn’t help that the second track ‘Grace‘ is not much of an improvement, either.
‘Dirge’ is possibly the most unfortunately named song since Hole did one called ‘Awful’ (yes, really, on both counts). It’s no relation to the Death In Vegas track. Clocking in at five and a half minutes, repeated plays have found this to be something of an endurance test.
Her voice can be inconsistent too. She can sound beautiful, yet there are other occasions when she sings in a way that sounds affected, that she’s trying to sound like she can sing less well than she can, which begs the question why..
It may sound harsh, but this has potential to be good, and it feels like it’s letting itself down. It would be a really good EP made up on the best tracks. Some may argue that the beauty of the streaming age is that you can cherry pick, which is of course, true. But, most artists, even now, expect albums to be listened to as a whole. I’ve played this album several times, over several weeks and repeated plays have not unveiled hitherto unhidden charms, sadly.
There are a whole lot of interesting influences that make up this record, from all sorts of 90’s alternative rock, to country and folk, and it’s clear that she wants to push herself and the listener. She isn’t simply a copyist of so many acts that have gone before. After all, in this day and age, we’ve got these all at the touch of a button without having to move a step. This is not to write her off – because she clearly is capable of a really good album.
