Given the teasing false starts made by the London weather earlier this week to try and break out of winter’s icy stranglehold – the fleeting excitement, the inevitable disappointment – it feels almost sadly appropriate to be introducing a band who open their debut album with a song called Summer Dies.
Sea Dramas come from San Francisco, a city with so many microclimates that the weather can be markedly different from one district to the next, so perhaps the paradoxical sounding of a death knell for the sunshine in the last throes of winter makes a lot of sense to them (and the album was actually recorded in September last year, so it makes complete, logical sense as well).
Luckily, last month’s self-release Soft Wake is a far more consistent and solid affair than their city’s weather. The songs are tight and intricately arranged cuts of folky Americana, with a very Californian pop sheen, and there are some lovely melodic duets from the two vocalists, Scott Peterson and Marlaina Rae, especially on tracks This Is What We Know and Golden Sands. Aside from energetic and surprisingly uplifting opener Summer Dies, standout track White Calm makes the seasonal transition feel nicely seamless, with its Christmas-sy bells and rousing chorus sounding equally suited to windows-down driving in the sunshine and walking through the snow. Sea Dramas are a good band to be listening to when you have absolutely no idea what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow.
The album is for sale on Sea Dramas bandcamp – preview it below.