Damn Seagulls

Soul Politics

Written by: TL on 13/02/2007 22:50:28

If you're the kind of person who thinks Finland is only capable of producing bands with long dark hair, dark clothing and well dark music, you're in for quite the surprise (and you've been living under a rock lately, but that's a different story).

When the guys from Damn Seagulls describe their music as "The E Street Band on speed" on their myspace page, they are surprisingly not joking. Their debut full length "Soul Politics" is ten tracks straight from the veins of good old fashioned classic American rock'n soul. Springsteen comes into mind at once, and except for the fact that this is a little more up beat and up to date, you're gonna have a reunion with old classical charmers like the harmonica, the saxophone, the trumpet and the hammond organ. Everything is straight as an arrow and you won't find even a dash of the ever so popular rock band attitude, nor any cliché artistical wankery. Instead you'll find warm and well written songs that are good in an obvious way, without being so in your face that it gets annoying. The up tempo songs like "Dirty Soul Radio" and "Human Torch" will be the first to catch your attention, but once you've listened to the album say.. twice (yes, it's that easy to get into, without it being a negative thing at all), you'll have noticed that no track seems particularly stronger or weaker than the others, maybe with the exception of "The Beat", which is a true classical soul song screaming for Andrew Strong to come swooping in and cover it (Can a man of Andrew Strong's size 'swoop in'..? Nevermind!)

Now in case you're from the generation that don't exactly know anything about Springsteen, except he's some old guy your dad used to rant about, I should probably compare the band to the likes of Matchbox Twenty and The Killers (at least on "Sams Town"). Only that they're a lot less poppy and a lot less inflated, and instead gifted with a profound ability to sidestep cliché pitfalls, in spite of working with a style almost as old as rock'n'roll itself.

This is not music that will impress you by it's originality or brilliance, it's just quality stuff that's really pleasant to listen to, without possessing the shadow of the ability to ever become annoying in any way. This is of course presuming you're capable of listening to stuff that's not exactly fashionable in these times of bitter hardcore and honeysweet pop punk. If not you should have your ass handed to you, as this is a band that seem delightfully concentrated with writing quality music, instead of jumping any bandwagons or running around trying to draw attention to themselves, and these days, that's something worth noticing.

Download: Dirty Soul Radio, Human Torch, The Beat,
For the fans of: Bruce Springsteen, Matchbox Twenty, The Killers
Listen: MySpace

Release Date 24.01.2007
Fullsteam Records
Provided by Fullsteam Records

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