Artist: Seaway
Album: Vacation
Release Date: 09/15/17
RIYL: State Champs, Neck Deep, Real Friends
Rating: 8/10
Seaway has done it again, man. I was really impressed with Colour Blind, and Vacation has a sound that I can really appreciate, especially when my taste for pop punk is declining. Vacation is a powerful pop punk album marked by Seaway’s signature upbeat, in-your-face style that makes you want to happily stomp on air. Certain aspects of the album remind me of Weezer and Blink-182, which is wicked awesome. Seaway also has a way of taking topics such as potential hostile and emotional situations, and twisting them into really rad songs with funny lyrics and music that vicariously relieves aggression through heavy rhythm guitar and drums. Vacation carries the air of a tropical vacation at a luxury hotel on a beach.
The album opener is “Apartment.” Is it just me, or does every pop punk band have a song regarding some chick’s apartment? Regardless, “Apartment” has a cool guitar intro (similar to Knuckle Puck’s sound), and taps into those pop punk love song sentiments with lyrics such as, “all I wanna do/is nothing with you/in your apartment/on vacation/forever.” The lyrics are slightly corny, but very catchy. A song with hysterical lyrics is “Curse Me Out,” which opens up with a consistent, distorted down strum of the the rhythm guitar and the lyrics, “[c]urse me out/you’re so pretty when you put me down.” It’s just so typically pop punk that I can’t help but laugh—is that cynical? Another song that really gets me is “40 Over.” With screaming lyrics like “tell me I’m gonna get it right this time,” singing along to this song is sure to release emotions of self-pity from your body. The cadence of the lyrics, the lead guitar, and the drums make “40 Over” a perfect song to blast in your just lost in your own head.
Truly, Vacation embodies the literal definition of pop punk. With that being said, pop punk from band to band can only sound so different, which means that there are even more similarities across the songs of a particular band’s albums. The same idea goes for Vacation. Despite this, Vacation is sure to put you in an awesome mood if you listen to it. Finally, in order to prepare yourself for the sound of Vacation by Seaway, put on your checkered slip-ons, grab your friends, order a pizza, get SmashBros ready, and listen.
