Forget conquistadors in search of El Dorado – Seafarers, the London chamber pop crew, are on a quest far more perilous: to wend one’s way through the treacherous waters of unrequited love. The latest single from the group, “Everything I’d Do (to Get a Hold on You)”, feels like walking through a Victorian streetscape, forever fog-bound and lamppost-cast with long shadows of melancholy.
This is a lush tapestry woven with shimmering threads of guitar and Lauren Kinsella’s vocals as smoky and rich as a good, well-aged bourbon. There’s a clear reverence here for the old country weepers of the ’80sᅳBonnie Raitt’s aching vulnerability and Emmylou Harris’s crystalline sorrowᅳbut there’s a sharper, more urban edge in this, a feeling of claustrophobia that must be part of the setting expressed by the song, where dreams have gone to a dead-end university town to gather dust bunnies.
Lyrically, it’s a heart laid bare. The narratorᅳa lovesick soul in perpetual chase after some distant flameᅳhalf-stumbles through frozen streets and dimly lit dives where each desperate attempt to connect is met with a chilling indifference. For me, this tale of dancing with emotional unavailability echoes in the messy tango that leaves you dizzy and heartbroken. Speaking of tangos, did anyone else catch the unexpected key change on the bridge? Genius.
“Everything I’d Do” is not all bleak, however. In the music, there is a flicker of defiance that refuses to give up completely. Here is the sound of someone grasping at a life raft in the middle of the oceanᅳhope fighting against despair. And perhaps, just perhaps, this glint of defiance is what makes this song so goddamn listenable. What lies before is the confidence that in every foggy labyrinth of love there will always be a way out.
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