If you’re in need of a summer soundtrack, look no further than Seapony’s debut, Go With Me. At thirty-five minutes, it’s just long enough to cover your trek from point A to point B, give you something to bump in the bathroom while you primp and preen, or to keep you company while you lie in bed before you actually have to get up.
A bulk of the album is bouncy, beachy tunes augmented by dreamy vocals. The sun always seems to be shining, which is the ultimate escape for this Seattle-based band. The influence of surf-rock is apparent on “Into the Sea”, and despite what the lyrics say in “Go Away” the music begs you to stay and play. A bass-heavy sound, handclaps, and a fuzzed-out guitar melody round out “So Low” and the song provides a great transition for what’s to come.
There’s a shift in the soundscape starting with “What You See” – the pervasive sonic sunshine is gone. Life comes into sharp focus after the sun goes down, our narrator crooning “you think my heart does not exist”. Follow-up “Nobody Knows” answers with bending guitar, giving a distinct feeling of coming untethered and getting caught in the undertow. On “Where We Go” the sun starts to peek through again, and the moonlit scenes fold back into daylight, coming full circle to the beach-pop formula for the closing track.
While many of the songs on the album do sound similar, they’re done well and nicely arranged in a cycle that mimics the summer both day-by-day and as a whole. In summer we give ourselves over to the long days, the siren call of the wind and water, the carefree attitudes and collective shirking of responsibilities. There are those key days when we stop to consider the future, wonder what we’re doing, and know that the golden haze won’t last forever, but those times are few and far between and we inevitably shake it off, opting to stare at the sun instead.
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Go With Me dropped 05.31.11.
Find more from Seapony here.
Click to download “Dreaming” and “Blue Star“.
Mixtapes|Heartbreaks 