Seabear - We Built A Fire

Icelandic septet Seabear have been compared to Sufjan Stevens and Arcade Fire, and there’s certainly much in the sprawling, instrumental spree and catchy, sweeping choruses on their second album for Morr Music to justify this. In the final reckoning, however, their sound is just is too fugitive and broadly-swept for them to be kept within the confines of any one genre. As it is, We Built A Fire is a master class in the seamless synthesis of all that is best about indie and alt. country; there are many things going on here, many disparate influences stewing happily together. It seems operating at such a geographic remove from the wellspring of these musical styles enables the band to rummage through the transatlantic drift that washes up on their remote shores, and pick and choose what they like best. 

As its title suggests, fire acts as an elemental theme for the album, but it’s a slow-burning sort, fanned by wistful violins and zephyr-soft vocals that can, at times (‘We Fell Off The Roof’), fade into innocuousness. Thankfully, though, the album as a whole is shot through with a healthy enough dose of thrumming guitars to keep things buoyant and brisk. Squeaking violins lend the likes of album-opener ‘Lion Face Boy’ a rustic, grassroots patina – albeit one that is buoyed along by the kind of symphonic grandeur that, yes, calls Arcade Fire to mind.

Obvious comparisons notwithstanding, the pièce de résistance here is a thing wholly of their own creation: with its dark and delicious riff flowing under a wash of breathy vocals, ‘I’ll Build You A Fire’ manages to sound both subdued and exultant, and provides an excellent jump-off point for anyone new to the band. ‘Softship’ and ‘Wolfboy’, meanwhile, are all sweetness and light, thanks to cherubic backing vocals and layered harmonies. No mere twee wallflowers, elsewhere the band show that they are not averse to working up a guitar-heavy sweat: ‘Warm Blood’ is an outburst of wirey grunge rock, while ‘Wooden Teeth’ rides an enjoyably jaunty country road rhythm.

Apart, then, from an occasional drift towards blandness – an occupational hazard, it seems, for musicians of this kind – We Built A Fire is a highly commendable sophomore outing for a band that seems to be coming into its own.