Customer Reviews

Leaves in the River

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I reviewed the EP, Get to the River Before It Runs too Low, back in May. I wanted to reiterate how fantastic this artist/band is, and to encourage people to support indie music as innovative and unique as Sea Wolf.

As I mentioned in my review of the EP, Alex Church, the lead singer and founder of Sea Wolf, was a founding member of my favorite band, Irving. His songwriting skills are amazing. The LP just released is Leaves in the River, and as with the EP it perfectly showcases his ability to write beautiful and engaging songs. My personal favorite is still You're a Wolf, but every song he writes continues to find a way to burrow into my subconscious.

While I lament the fact that Alex is no longer with Irving, I rejoice in the beauty that is Sea Wolf and am so thankful he is still bringing new songs into the world. If you get a chance, do yourself a favor and go see Sea Wolf play live - they blew me away when I saw them play the noise pop festival.

I had already discovered the single "you're a wolf" on iTunes a while back and knew I would like the band. I had no idea how much this record would continue to grow on me. I have listened to it completely, end to end, at least 40 times know and it just doesn't get old. The last half of the record really starts to settle in. Saw them live in Seattle, they sound just as good in person.

Buy this album and but a second one for a friend!

Kudos to Alex Church and his ensemble of supporting musicians for adding a distinctive voice to the legions of modern story tellers, including bands such as Midlake, The Decemberists, and Cowboy Junkies. Mr. Church takes the universal themes of romance, angst, tragedy, and mortality and wraps them in an organic veneer, yet he avoid being maudlin, derivative, or trite. His images and metaphors have a haunting quality that despite their nod to the impermanence of things, linger beyond the final notes from these songs.

Thankfully, he has not tried to make this effort a one-man-band, for the cast of musicians playing his songs render then fresher and deeper than if Mr. Church had handled this work as a solo endeavor. Here's hoping for much music along these lines!

This is a great album, filled with soulful lyrics which provoke rich images of solitude, nature, love and almost forgotten memories. There are some nice downbeat songs in which sea wolf sound like a moderately more cheerful bright eyes. Highly recommended.

The first song on this release settled over me like a cape of welcome shivers. I was sitting in a radio DJ booth with my DJ friend, and he put this on while nonchalantly handing me the paper case to read. I could barely concentrate, as the magic woven through this music had me at hello. You will likely not hear something so peaceful and dark, so gorgeous and difficult, so lovely and impossible to pigeonhole. It is low-fi music in some ways. This is not music to blast from your sound system and rumble down the road with. This music is like falling through dark glitter. In the rain. When it's cold but the cold is perfect. When it's dark but the dark is full of secrets.

There are stories here and these stories are at once familiar and utterly strange. They have happened to you but they haven't. It's this skill in weaving real life into waking dreams that will leave you sitting, as it left me sitting, unhinged/bewitched/inlove. I bought it right away and you might consider doing the same.

I could talk about the hushed velvet vocals that seem to confide in you. I could talk about the arrangements which leave so much breathing room that at times you feel suspended. I could talk about the lyrics which seem to confide something in you and yet leave you with questions. I could. But I think you should buy this CD and load it, turn the lights off, wish for rain, and fall into this world of sweet haunted tales.

Okay, so you've gotta love Pandora Radio. I actually stumbled on this band while listening to Florence + The Machine. I am not usually an impulse buyer, but the music is so amazing that I literally bought this album within the hour. I haven't even received the cd in the mail yet but I have been listening to the album over and over on youtube.. I can't get enough!! There is just something so unique about their sound, kind of folk/indie. I honestly can't think of a band to accurately compare them to. The lyrics are BEYOND poetic. I don't know how these guys aren't more mainstream!! Btw, I have listened to some of their other album, "White Water, White Bloom" & it is not NEARLY as beautiful as "Leaves in the River." So if you're debating, get this one! Sea Wolf is truly just mesmerizing..

Sea Wolf, the creation of Alex Brown Church, is simply amazing. I found myself purchasing this album after I fell in love with "You're a Wolf." The entire album is great. The songs are unique yet distinctly Sea Wolf. I'm not sure who you could compare these guys to. I found all of their songs to be rhythmic and beautiful. The lyrics are ripe with passion and substance. After I listened extensively and repeatedly to this album, I went and bought their second, which is just as good. If you're deciding between the two, go with Leaves in the River and it will open your eyes, ears, and heart (but especially your ears) like never before - and it will be so damn easy.

This reminds me of the singer songwriters of the sixties and the seventies, where lyrics were as important as the melody.

This CD is very like that but a little more light hearted.

I bought this CD at a live show that Sea Wolf opened for Nada Surf in Portland OR.
They were awesome live - and this CD cemented my love for their unique sound.

I need more Sea Wolf!

Beautifully composed songs by a great emerging songwriter Alex Church. All the songs carry a kind of beautifully melodic sad emotional aura that mixes folk with a rock sensibility. This rcord takes you through the seasons, through faraway places with gypsies and wolves, and through plains swept in snow and fog. This is a record you want to pass on to your friends. Definately my favorite album of 2007. Highly recommend