Imagine sitting out on your porch or patio on a warm summer evening. You feel like just kicking back and relaxing while enjoying a light breeze. As corny as that sounds, this is what comes to mind for me when I listen to The Sea and Cake. Everything seems to flow almost effortlessly, just telling you to relax. However, it seems to be a little more difficult on the band's most recent effort, Everybody.
This is the first studio album for the group since 2003's One Bedroom, so a lot of anticipation was built up this time around. For those who have never heard The Sea and Cake, the sound is a light and jazzy pop sound. The melodies can flow wonderfully, with each instrument making its own niche in every song. Sam Prekop's vocals on this album are very similar to One Bedroom as well as his 2005 solo album Who's Your New Professor?. He sings in such a calming way that you could swear he is almost whispering the words. Anyways, let's get down to some specifics.
The album opens with "Up On Crutches," a strange song where the melodies do not seem to fit very well at first. However, the song progresses and saves itself, changing up the guitar sounds to a softer sound. This has been notably unique on the last two albums; the band's earlier work often had only one melody repeated throughout the song. This worked well for them, but you can see the musical maturity since the band's first work. From this point on, the album jumps around. There are a few key tracks that bring that soft jazzy sound that we're used to, such as "Too Strong" and "Transparent." But others experiment a little too much with guitar tones that just don't mix well with the band's overall sound. But the fact that the song structure differs throughout each song is surprisingly refreshing, even if it doesn't work perfectly.
This album isn't bad by any means; it's just not that great. It's been a long time between albums and my expectations may have been a little too high. If you're a long time fan you should definitely pick it up to get some more of that sound you know and love, but if you haven't heard The Sea and Cake before, don't start with this one.
