Album Reviews :: Seagulls and Somos

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Seagulls :: The Royal We :: Autumn + Colour Records

Seagulls are a punk band from Atlanta that will totally take you by storm. They walk that blurry line between punk and hardcore with gravely vocals and the slightest hooks that will get you singing along. The Implication starts The Royal We off with great distortion and chaos and power that will have you moshing by yourself and pits thrashing in unison. Darryl Strawberry Fields Forever has just as many sing along-y layered vocal sections as it has hardcore verses. Close One starts to lean more towards the punk influence with a fairly hooky chorus while F.F.M is a straight forward hardcore track with some great “hey”s.  Santa’s Little Helper is another hardcore track but with sparse music in sections that really add to its power.

Somos :: Temple of Plenty :: Tiny Engines

Somos’ Temple of Plenty is an indie/emo album that really captures an attitude and cadence that is difficult to replicate in words. It begins with Familiar Theme, a track with good energy and great hooks, there are moments where the music is heavier than you would expect from an indie/emo record, but that totally adds to its power.  Familiar Theme also has great backing vocals, they are used sparsely and are just a step behind the lead. Domestic is a heavy track, both in sound and topic, “why did you have to act on your anger” and somehow exists out of the musical trend timeline.  Dead Wrong is super hooky with fast vocals and slowed down verses. The changes in tempo creates a super cool vibe to the track. Lives of Others has a super catchy chorus that I can’t get out of my head and a killer stripped down ending that is totally beautiful. The next track, When You Pass takes that same hook and cadence and expands upon it. These two tracks transition seamlessly into one another. Lifeline is, hands down,  my favorite track on this album, it plays with both fast and slow timing and to create a fairly menacing track. Ther are also clear Blink 182 (their self titled album) and Transit influences that are filtered by Somos’ own style and come out super poingent. Before You Merge, the final track is a great ending to this album, it is a solid representation of the progression of this album – great melody, great distortion, great vibe.