Self styled “dirty dark pop” outfit SeaWitches have been around in some form or another for 7 years – but don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of them. They’ve certainly been flying under the radar for some time now, yet their sound is oddly familiar. You can be forgiven to likening them to bands like pre-1984 The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain or even Brighton based alt-rockers Electrelane. Their newest single, “Stars”, released on Edge Hill University based The Label Recordings is certainly distinguishable as an example of the aforementioned pop, but on the surface is hardly that dark, with jangly, chorus-pedal rich guitars and an almost dream pop vibe to it.
Dig a little deeper, though, scratch a little harder, and you’ll start to pick away the glossy pop exterior and get to the satisfyingly gloomy lyrical content. Each line is like a morose chant, repetitive proclamations of “This sky has no stars” disguised by the musicianship as gleeful shouts of joy. The word “repetitive” has popped up and although it’s not an unfair approximation of the lyrics, the song itself is just fugacious enough to forgive the lyrical monotony. There’s a wonderful dichotomy to be heard, the juxtaposition of the music and lyrics working wonderfully to create a track which you’ll be humming to yourself for as long as there’s stars in the sky.
R. Allden
