The only life is not the only life

[sovay]

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 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.

Comments

[kore]

PETER GABRIEL, yes! That was the kind of sound I was trying to remember and just couldn't!

The whole album is also on Sub Pop's UTU -- I think they leave those up, too. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbOGt8cOph4VfVAJxGhTpqktZVGj2-Lf_

[sovay]

PETER GABRIEL, yes! That was the kind of sound I was trying to remember and just couldn't!

rushthatspeaks heard the first few bars and said, "They turned into Joy Division," but I realized quite late at night that I'd started thinking of Gabriel's Melt (1980). The figure played by the chiming instrument (glockenspiel, dulcimer, I suppose it could be synthesized; it's heard after the first chorus and prominently at the end) is still driving me slightly crazy. It sounds enough like the use of a similar instrument in another song from the right time period that it could be a quotation or at least a tip of the hat, but I haven't been able to remember from what!

[kore]

It's a little too slow and his voice isn't deep enough for me to think of Joy Div, but I can definitely see the resemblance. In that interview on the Sub Pop website, he talks a lot about eighties music and instruments. This is where I really miss liner notes on albums/cassettes/CDs, because you'd get all the instruments and personnel. I know just the sound you mean -- it's in a couple of other tracks too, I think, like at the start of "Long Time Away" maybe, which is also great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDIU8wMO-44

[davidgillon]

I've been trying all afternoon to think what the instrumental part of the opening was reminding me of, and it's just come to me - Ultravox and Vienna.

[sovay]

Ultravox and Vienna.

Yes! It's not a direct copy, but it's a good echo.