“Crocuses are opening in stop-motion time/devouring everything we laid upon the line”
‘Crocuses’ is Sea Pinks’ first new material in two years; it is a brave statement that wastes no time, ironically, coming out swinging with sticky chords and brittle drums to knock you round the head with a tried and true melody, “Wasting your own time and mine” – this stays for one hot minute of floral conceits that demand nothing but respect for Sea Pinks’ tightness as a group.
These guys have been on the scene for a decade at this point and know fine well how to give each instrument personalities that play off each other like old friends. It’s familiar, but in the best way. They describe themselves as inspired by “sea glass, bleached grass, and ghost guitars.” and rightly enough, the spectre of this track haunts you and demands an immediate replay, like “hold on, what was THAT?”
Their description is accurate when measured up to the tune; you don’t know exactly what it means, but man is it a cool way to put it. There are a number of acts on the scene that sell themselves as ‘punk’ but give you bored self-indulgent indie-rock with a couple swear words in – the lads in Sea Pinks know better than to compromise themselves with a label, and do what they like, for example, out of nowhere a slowed groove smooths the track out logically for the last thirty seconds, but it is still just as fun as the first punchy phrase.
I may have a bias towards shorter songs; the best band in my book is Minutemen, who said they don’t write songs, they write rivers. I am not alone in wondering where this particular river will run.
