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Seachange: Lay of the Land
by Kate Price
'Lay Of The Land' is a fairytale. It’s a dusty leather-coated book stowed away in the uppermost untouched corner of a ramshackle bookshelf. The brittle pages are ochre with age. Flicking through them, careful of the cracking, crumbling spine, a musty smell of happy times gone by sneezes in the air.
It’s an early 1950’s film. A series of flickering images, hazy and splattered with character, dancing to a silenced upright piano. A gaunt gypsy girl with ebony hair and deep, dark set eyes spinning barefooted on dry and dusty earth, a secret guarded close to her heart.
Down to the artwork, 'Lay Of The Land' is a sad reminder of happy times forgotten. A beautiful tale of a lost essence revived. The light is dim, colours are autumn tones of gold and red and smell is of coal smoke tinged with old dried lavender.
It’s the drawn out violins and distorted guitars, the familiar yet haunting vocals and the warming yet chilling melodies.
With a track listing that floats over folkier, enigmatic moments, including opening track ‘Anglokana’ and single, ‘Glitterball’ before crashing into areas of frantic screaming in ‘SF’ and ‘Forty Nights’, Seachange’s debut really is a fairytale of the darkest kind.
Whether or not the album really captures the bands reputable live show is utterly debatable, but it’s certainly one to inspire the imagination. It’s a CD to listen to alone in a candlelit room; to while away the winter nights and to whisk you off to your own fantasy world. It’s just a shame then, that the remainder of 2004’s winter nights seem to be numbered, for now at least...
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Seachange - Lay of the Land
Well done Kate - i had tried writing a review for this, but i just couldn't get my head around it totally. Class Album -it's kinda got the classic indie sound, but with that extra fuzz-
Seachange - Lay of the Land
and it sounds like?-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
it sounds like she looks at me as if in the middle of a kiss
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Seachange - Lay of the Land
i like it...but they're better live. the album seems a little hollow at times compared with the excellent live show-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
thank you. whens your night again? is it the sin radio thing? i must have seen you before. are you going to lennons tonight?-
Seachange - Lay of the Land
I thought Lay of the Land was awesome. However some of the revews ive read have been lazy and inaccurate. Anyone read the laughable 'The Fly' review, they gave it about 4lines with of text and name checked shed seven and menswear. Reeked, 'we cant be bothered to listen to this cus theres some other band the nme are raving about which we need to hype up to stay with the times', poor.
Think nme gave it 2/10 too, i cant even think what they were thinking.
Its a strong album. I love it, its a great debut. Cant wait for more tours.-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
ha! you jest, surely. seachange aren't a good live band. they specialise in this wants-to-be-pretentious-but-isn't-snooty-enough branch of sub rock that's dull in comparison to the real art-rockers and experimentalists in guitar bandage of a similar, ehm, volume/style.
another one to consign to the "one album then vanish" truck. -
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
nah, it's one of SIN's Dj's birthdays, so we're all out for a civilised meal (then probably drunkenly trash the joint) -
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
NM what?
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Seachange - Lay of the Land
I've just listened to it for the first time and I'm very disappointed. News From Nowhere and Glitterball are excellent, but the rest ranges from average to downright embarrassing. nearly every song seems to end in a massive blowout, but there's no real buildup, no dynamics present. Added to the fact the singer can't sing (or scream, as it happens) and all in all it's a poor album.-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
But the first and last songs are aaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaazzzzzzing.
With bookends like that, how can you be unimpressed?
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Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
listen to it 3 more times. you will change your mind.-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
Yeah i think it will grow on you if you listen again....:)
Often good things don't impress the first time because they are changing what you know, and only later, once you've gotten over that change, can you see clearly what they are.
When i first heard Kid A i was generally unphased....i heard it again 6 months later and realised it contained genius...:)
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Seachange - Lay of the Land
Ha! I never knew Jordan was reviewing for DiS now! (Kate Price..geddit?)
actually, i slagged off the band up there ^, but while they are utterly gash live, they're quite good on album. Though i'd have said 3 1/2 stars-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
Man i've seen this band play live and i promise you your description is all wrong.
I don't know when or where you saw them and it doesn't matter, i think you should go and watch it once more, and in all probability you will change your mind, especially if u like the album.
The sound of a place can really make a difference to how it comes across, not to mention context, moods, illness, and other one-off factors, and something had to be amiss for you to think anything like that cos i have seen them and they rock, and i reserve that statement for very few bands i see live.
But then again, i don't know you, you might be a 16-yr-old who masturbastes over Marilyn Manson, wears a black NiN beanie every day and smokes pot just to be cool even tho' you don't like it, in which case all of this chat is pointless...in fact, what the fuck am i doing here...i'm off :)-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
mmm, i guess when i saw them was straight after Lapsus Linguae, who blew me away, and Seachange seemed pale in comparison. Their album doesn't sound like they sounded live that night might have been a factor. They do sound quite enchanting on album, but live that night they sounded bland and not precious in any way. *shrug* You get that a lot with small independant venues, I guess.-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
yeah cool, give it another watch then and see how it goes
take care :) -
Seachange - Lay of the Land
It's a shit album coz Krissi Murison said so.
Also,*woo woo woo* GRAMMAR POLICE 1950s needn't have an apostrophe between 0 and s. There's no letters being missed out and no possession
Aren't you meant to be a sub on here Kay Pee? -
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
erm... but lapsus linguae are feckin' awful....-
Re: Seachange - Lay of the Land
blasphemy.
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