While this is their second overall (if Bandcamp is up to date), The Rapture and Resurgens is my first time really sitting down with a Seagulls full-length. And my takeaways match with seeing them at FEST 21 recently. It’s heavy punk that’s big on singalongs, equally angry and melodic -- and usually both at the same time. I like the band’s high energy approach and it hits more often than it doesn’t. My main knock is that I’m often playing the who-does-this-remind-me-of game as I listen. It hits in all the right places, but with an underlying familiarity like you’ve heard it before.
After repeated listens, I’m going to say part of that frustration is because it doesn’t remind me of just one band. Rather, it falls sonically at a middle between the big choruses of Direct Hit! and the heavier yet deceptively melodic elements of The Brokedowns. It’s really balanced between an angry, gang shout about the troubles of the world, blended somehow with hugely anthemic choruses that feel uplifting amid the muck. They even sneak some hardcore-style breakdowns into the mix. I wouldn’t think the two styles would merge as well as they do, but the somewhat one-note vocal pitch helps in this case. The coarse and raspy vocals somewhat progressively escalate from letting out your emotions to the full band coming together as one so smoothly that you don’t notice it’s happened. It’s like an ongoing harmony except it’s angry AF. The constantly harsh vocals are somewhat misleading when compared to the more melodic guitars and flow.
There’s a lot going on here, under the guise of verse-chorus-verse punk, with ample wordplay and deeper messages. I’m personally a sucker for the rhyming of “hypocrites and sycophants” in “Four Long Years,” dropped in so seamlessly you don’t notice the crafted enunciation. Then the next song, “The Least Of Us” flips it with a punchy but far more direct refrain about bootlicking. This is a long way of saying they write smart lyrics without sounding pretentious -- something I’m struggling to do right now.
This vocal style isn’t perfect -- I think the 14-song record feels a little bit long at times, likely due to the similar style throughout. But I like what Seagulls are doing. It’s aggressive punk that’s still meaningful. The lyrics focus on a broken world, but looking within and seeking for answers instead of just venting. While it’s often bleak, it works because it offers some balance by trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Never give up hope cliché cliché…Or, better still, as they put it in “The Gooder News:”
It sure was fun while it lasted / We’ll dance into oblivion
