REVIEW: Seam, The Pace is Glacial (Touch & Go)
- Kerwin So
Three long years have transpired since Chicago's venerable kings of indie rock, Seam, have released any new songs to satiate fans hooked by 1995's critically acclaimed Are You Driving Me Crazy? Has it been worth the wait? In a word, yes!
Seam's fourth and long-awaited LP, appropriately titled The Pace is Glacial, offers another satisfying platter of solid, moody and complex songs for the Seam-starved masses, along with a few forays into stretching the band's sound.
The album opens with up-tempo rockers (a la "Kernel) that will make you swing your skinny mod hips, notwithstanding the elegant intermission of "Wig". "Kanawha" finds Seam testing out some new effects on both guitar and drum treatment: a delayed guitar wash, heavy reverb on the snare, and a poignant E-bow solo offset Sooyoung Park's trademark whispered vocals, leaving the listener enthralled and meditative. The brooding continues into "Nisei Fight Song", a heavy, controlled number featuring some of the dynamics we've come to love about Seam, including an unusually aggressive Sooyoung shouting, "I cannot remember/ My history reflected/ I haven't said anything/ That's the glaring omission." The song's plaintive ending refrain builds and fades on itself until you realize you're no longer in the same place you were when the song began. At this point the new version of the Mariachi-inspired "The Prizefighters" snaps you from your reverie. I think this version sounds more inspired than the one found on the Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation CD.
Then, The Pace is Glacial reaches a fascinating contrast between the only Seam song that I don't like-- the awkward, unSeamly chant- along "In the Sun" - and the album's standout track, the magnificent "Inching Towards Juarez." While there isn't exactly a smooth transition after "In the Sun", the closing tracks on this record will remind you how great Seam are. The pristine, expansive beauty of "Juarez" will make you stop whatever you happen to be doing at the time, only to be drawn in by the precise guitar work, brooding bass lines, delicate drumrolls like desert breezes, and the subtly painful lines, "Rub out your eyes/ This ship is sinking."
"Pale Marble Movie" opens similarly to one of my favorite songs, "Rainy Season": a lone guitar dryly strumming a melancholy, descending progression. Universal relationship rule #343: "I could be there for you, better to you/ But you make it harder, harder, harder." By the time you've finished absorbing the "autopilot"-esque spiritual instrumental "Aloha Spirit", you'll have to summon the effort to get up off your back and scramble for the repeat button.
As it should be. Seam, notorious homebodies, are currently planning a sprinkling of December and January shows on both East and West coasts. Be sure to catch them now lest ye have to wait another eternity.
