As a blog that mostly focuses on folk music, we have identified a lot of different sub genres within that. This is something that we do to help you the reader have an understanding of what it is we’re talking about, but also for us to use as a way to delineate between the wide range of folk music we hear. The Sea The Sea, however, left me at a bit of a loss as to how to describe them. The female vocal-driven harmonies and soft, subtly layered instrumentation certainly labeled them as folk, but it was more difficult to find a sub genre that described them.
With the softness of this music and the beauty of Mira Stanley’s voice and Chuck e. Costa’s harmonies, this music is perfect for a quiet night in, something that would be right at home as the backing music for a date. The sound of this band and it’s beauty make it the perfect kind of music to play softly in the background, but the lyrics and the intricacies make it best appreciated in a quiet space where it can be really listened to. Perhaps the best example of this is “Watertreader”, a beautifully quiet song that most perfectly demonstrates what The Sea The Sea is capable of and what Stanley’s voice brings. It’s a confessional song, one that speaks to being tired of treading water in a relationship. It’s beautiful, haunting and powerful.
One of my personal favorites is “Guess It Was”, a song about conversations and communication that is never as clear as it should be. When Stanley croons “Guess it was you had to go”, it’s hard to not feel exactly what she is talking about. This song also includes perhaps my favorite line of the whole album, “You said love was the question, the answer was everything.”
“Fist Full of Flowers” is the first single of the album and it’s worthy of that. It’s a love song and one that looks forward. It contemplates what the relationship looks like in the far future. “And you’ll still think I’m beautiful when I’m old.” It’s a beautiful look at an aspect of a relationship that is rarely mentioned. One of the most intriguing songs on the album is “Boat Song”. What’s really cool about this song is that Stanley and Costa alternate singing words. While this sounds like it could go horribly wrong, it’s done perfectly. It’s an interesting addition to a stellar folk album from a band that we will almost certainly hear much more from in the future.
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