With the release of their first two albums Go With Me and Falling, the Olympia, WA–based band Seapony received both national and eventually international attention for a sound based around simple, catchy melodies with elements of shoegaze and surf rock. The band wound up touring across the US, UK, Continental Europe and Japan – as a result, the band, which was primarily a studio recording project forged a live sound. Eventually the drum machine was replaced by Aaron Voros (drums) and the band which then-featured primary songwriter Danny Rowland, Ian Brewer (bass) and Jen Weidi (vocals and guitar) went through a gradual change in sonic direction, as their material began to posses a greater emphasis on live instrumentation.
In 2012, the band went on an unscheduled hiatus and in they spent writing and recording material, eventually amassing enough material for their third and soon-to-be released full-length effort, A Vision, which will be official drop on Friday. Much like the album’s first single “Saw The Light,” the album’s second and latest single “Let Go,” reveals a refinement in their sound — the song still possesses a simple and catchy melody, but the song also possesses a studio sheen, as the guitars shimmer and chime in a way that’s reminiscent of Johnny Marr’s legendary work with The Smiths, paired with four-on-the-floor drumming, Weidi’s ethereal vocals floating over the mix with the addition of a twisting and turning keyboards throughout.
While on a superficial level, the song is a breezily summertime track, at its core is a melancholy wistfulness towards relationships and affairs of the heart. Romantic relationships have us at our most vulnerable and perhaps, at times our stupidest — and like the previously released single, it evokes something deeply universal; in this case, the difficulties and fears we all have when we put our hearts on the line, knowing that it could be smashed to bits by some thoughtless soul or that our love is unrequited.
