Words by Nick Mee. @Nickjmee
Even discounting the near-silent preliminaries of Seward’s borderline intriguing/irritating video for ‘Sweet Kick’, it takes a while for the song itself to get rolling. Frontman Adriano’s strangulated vocal style, like a muppety Jeff Buckley, threatens an overdose of quirky, but the antidote is soon administered when the nimble double bass joins the metronomic beat to produce a rubbery percussive pound, restraining the vocal’s flighty melody and distilling the harmonic goodness of assorted keyboard runs, electro twirls and wiry guitar picking into inventive, satisfying electro-folk fusion. Granted, the video can’t quite leave the fractured surrealist outtakes alone, even after ‘Sweet Kicks’ is done, but the track itself is a much more compelling, confident example of unorthodox art and raises expectations for the Barcelona band’s new album, Second Two: Chapter Home, released on Friday.
Second Two: Chapter Home is out on 3 June on Naim Records