| Product: |
Do It Yourself - The Seahorses |
| Date: |
01/05/03 (513 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Some great tracks
Disadvantages: Confusing influences, People expect the stone roses
After a few years in the wilderness, John Squire, of Stone Roes fame, hit back at the musical world with an album and new band.
The Seahorses carried with them the legacy of owning the creative one from the almighty smash band of the late 80's who were the Stone Roses.
So with a follow up album that did nt quite hit the market like it was intended and growing differences with the band, the Stone Roses split and went off to their own solo projects.
The immediate success of the Seahorses was shortlived though.
Today they are not really mentioned. Their music was possibly too tuneful to match the raw sound of the Stone Roses. After all, the vocalist, Chris Helme, was far more melodic than Ian Brown ever was.
However, this album did bring some good reviews and I am here to talk about it.
"Do it To Yourself" was released in 1997 and contained a couple of tracks that had already debuted as singles in the music world. These are possibly their best known songs and feature strongly on the album.
Album cover wise? Well its based on a jigsaw which is what I can liken their music to. A lot of different pieces placed together. The globe jigsaw is incomplete which is ironic really. That is because I feel their album reflects this!
The 11 songs follow a similar pattern to johns first band. The tunes and songs feature mainly around simple if nice sounding guitar solos throughout the songs. These are overlayed to quietly compliment the vocals.
So opening the album with an unknown song is a good way to get the public to listen to a track you may not release. That was the case with "I want to know".
Taken heavily from Squires last Stone Roses album, it has an almost grungy sound with a strong raw guitar solo and an almost Country and western sound. Unusual.
The 2nd track however will have your foot tapping and remebering tunes from days gone by.
"Blinded by the sun" has been hea
vily overlayed with an orchestra and strings section as was ppopular at the time with bands such as Manic Street Preachers. It isa moody track and I never did understand the last note of the song. It does not fit with the rest.
If you like Shed Seven, the 3rd song sounds just like them! I have to be convinced that "Suicide Drive" is not performed by them at times. A great uplifting soung if sounding a little borrowed. I love this track.
Slow and Radiohead like is how I can liken the 4th track. "Boy in the Picture" is a bit depressing in sound and one to flick past on the CD player.
One you will recognise as it was widely played in the radio is track 5. "Love is the Law" is a great track. The line "she was a role model slapper and we always tried to get her pants off" is something that will live as poetic excellence forever!
Track 6.Swing Beat, Swing Beat! What is going on here. I think my mum is going to start jiving about to this track. Again it has elements of Shed Seven in it.
Track 7. Lome Me and Leave me. A great great song. Possibly one of my favourites on the album. I do like this one. Another that was released and did quite well during their popular days.
The remainder of the 4 tracks are a mixture of existing Shed Seven songs with some bad Country and Western sounding slide guitar thrown in for good measure.
They really do nothing for me which is the reason I am not going to write about them. I normally hike the CD out fo the player before it gets this far.
Overall?
Yep, A stong starting album but one that starts to srtuggle towards the end. This could be why they disappeared so quickly. Too many people bought the album expecting the new stone roses and got a cross between Shed Seven and Dolly Parton Music!
Rating? 3 out of 5 and thats being generous.
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