So the last time I paid much attention to Shearwater, they were an anxiously haunting indie-folk outfit who tended toward narratives of quiet unease and impressionistic apocalypse with titles like "Red Sea, Black Sea," "Rooks," and "Leviathan, Bound." Notable instruments included glockenspiel, hammered dulcimer, and banjo. The lead singer employed falsetto more often than full voice, aiding the floating, glassy sense of slow-motion disaster. I liked their lyrics, many of which could have been published without melodies:
I won't go traveling tonight
I won't go back to the wolves now . . .
He took me out on the tide to make pearls of my eyes
And uncover me all without asking
When the rooks were laid in piles by the side of the road
Crashing into the aerials, tangled in the laundry line
And gathered in a field they were burned in a feathering pyre
With a cold black eye
The silver shoals of the light in the deep
Brush the glittering skein where the great dark body writhes
And the trembling jaw, the unfathoming sounds
Of Leviathan, bound, and his heart, though weakening
But they were not a band I found myself listening to much on repeat. Then I lost track of them for six to eight years and missed all intervening releases until![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kore linked the video for "Quiet Americans," from their just-released Jet Plane and Oxbow (2016).
I realize this is a gross oversimplication of the natural evolution of musical artists, but it is very rare that a band discovers synths and gets better. I've listened to "Quiet Americans" more than a dozen times now, not including the video. Its lyrics remind me of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cucumberseed's poetry ("The only sound are the bells upon the hill / The only light are the lanterns in the wind / The only sign skims the rust off of the rails"), but the sound is sweeping and dark and propulsively electronic. There may still be a dulcimer in that mix, but it recalls Peter Gabriel more than John McCutcheon. The way the piano threads through the percussion reminds me of Kate Bush in sci-fi mode. The thing is a certified earworm. I can't tell if the listener is meant to feel ambivalent about that.
Also, they covered the Mountain Goats' "This Year," which is just pretty cool.
I won't go traveling tonight
I won't go back to the wolves now . . .
He took me out on the tide to make pearls of my eyes
And uncover me all without asking
When the rooks were laid in piles by the side of the road
Crashing into the aerials, tangled in the laundry line
And gathered in a field they were burned in a feathering pyre
With a cold black eye
The silver shoals of the light in the deep
Brush the glittering skein where the great dark body writhes
And the trembling jaw, the unfathoming sounds
Of Leviathan, bound, and his heart, though weakening
But they were not a band I found myself listening to much on repeat. Then I lost track of them for six to eight years and missed all intervening releases until
kore linked the video for "Quiet Americans," from their just-released Jet Plane and Oxbow (2016).I realize this is a gross oversimplication of the natural evolution of musical artists, but it is very rare that a band discovers synths and gets better. I've listened to "Quiet Americans" more than a dozen times now, not including the video. Its lyrics remind me of
cucumberseed's poetry ("The only sound are the bells upon the hill / The only light are the lanterns in the wind / The only sign skims the rust off of the rails"), but the sound is sweeping and dark and propulsively electronic. There may still be a dulcimer in that mix, but it recalls Peter Gabriel more than John McCutcheon. The way the piano threads through the percussion reminds me of Kate Bush in sci-fi mode. The thing is a certified earworm. I can't tell if the listener is meant to feel ambivalent about that.Also, they covered the Mountain Goats' "This Year," which is just pretty cool.
