Thursday 16 September 2010

The Diamond Sea – Second Move (This Is Music)

‘Second Move’ is the debut album from Leeds born three piece The Diamond Sea. Bringing together their broad range of influences that include the likes of Max Richter and Wilco, the sound they create is quite nostalgic. It echoes the indie bands of the late eighties and early nineties; in fact the word shoegaze comes to mind. The songs are slow and sombre, with gently picked guitars, delicately hit drums and careless sounding vocals. Even when the pace is picked up everything still seems to be being played with half the amount of effort that you would expect. It all seems very lazy.

It is not just the playing style that sounds lazy in fact, the songs themselves also sound a little half hearted. Everything is on the same level with no highs and lows to the album, which over nine songs can start to get a bit dreary. Individually the tracks don’t really seem to go anywhere and there are no really memorable moments, stand out choruses or catchy guitar licks. It just seems to lack any sort of feeling. I don’t believe what lead singer Ben Eyes is saying, it sounds like he has come up with a few words that rhyme then has put them together without any thought of what they could mean to him. None of this helped by the fact that he can’t really sing either; there are moments where it is so piercingly out of tune (sometimes even out of tune with himself when there are layered lead vocal parts) it is completely cringe worthy. There, I’ve said it now.


It’s not all bad for The Diamond Sea though; putting all my previous negativity aside, their music could be a lot worse. Apparently in a live setting they deliver a tougher sound, something that if replicated on a recording it could make their music a bit more edgy on CD. I just feel like they need something else, a bit more passion to their music to make it believable, some more energy at times, a bit of variety to their songs. Oh and maybe a new lead vocalist. 3/10 www.thediamondsea.co.uk

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