First of all, I bought this album completely under the wrong guise. In a sale-induced frenzy I picked up 'Seamonsters' thinking it was by The Birthday Party, Nick Cave's seminal pre-Bad Seeds group that infused the way for much modern indie and alternative music. However, 'Seamonsters' is a true gem of 90's indie that wasn't under the horrible umbrella of britpop. Instead it takes equal influence from bands like The Smiths, Joy Division and Pixies, melding droning guitars with inspired lyrics of a forelorn life and a production by Steve Albini (responsible for some of the best albums ever: 'Surfer Rosa', 'Yanqui U.X.O' and 'In Utero' to name but a few) into an album that luckily escaped being tarred by the brush of many 90's bands.
Primarily, this album has, in my mind, two of the best songs from the 1990's; 'Suck' and 'Dalliance', both of which take the concept of a 'love song' and apply such darkness and intensity that it almost makes you terrified of ever falling in love. David Gedge breaks down to a primeval scream in 'Suck', proudly claiming that 'I just love hearing you say "Oh please don't go"' as if no emotion can find its way through. Perhaps that's the best way of describing the key aspect of this album; it's an album about love performed by those who no longer believe in it.
Lead single 'Corduroy' can really be described as the original blue print for bands such as Interpol and Editors, who tried to capture the bleak despair of Joy Division and apply it to a more mainstream sound. The chilling cover of Cockney Rebel's '(Make Me Smile) Come Up And See Me' is one of the few cover songs that truly peaks it's original, with the song taking a real sense of pleading, as if they Gedge needs nothing more than someone to help him cope with the depression he feels. It fits perfectly into the album, a rare skill for most cover songs.
The droning guitars in many ways suggest a more appealing approach to playing than the extremities of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, but still are distorted enough so that as a listener you are presented with a wave of noise that continues to build, with each song reach a multi-layered crescendo; 'Lovenest' is possibly the best example of this.
'Seamonsters' is The Wedding Party's third album, and in my opinion the rest of their catalogue never really matched the quality of 'Seamonsters'. If you are interested in expanding your knowledge of the band then 'Bizarro' and 'Saturnalia' are definitely worth checking out, but 'Seamonsters' remains to me a perfect example of how British music in the 1990's was not solely derived of cocky Essex boys or monobrowed Mancunian thugs. Simply sublime.
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