L.A.-based pop-rockers Sea Wolf snagged a spot on the soundtrack for the newest Twilight film, New Moon, and while the band's inclusion certainly didn't cause as much of a stir as that of, say, Thom Yorke or Grizzly Bear, appearing on the chart-topping compilation may prove to be a bigger boon to this group's career than to any of the other acts that participated. That's not just because the soundtrack is selling well and getting Sea Wolf's name out to the listening public in general, but more because the kind of person who is most likely to be voraciously devouring the album is also exceedingly susceptible to becoming smitten with the rest of Sea Wolf's oeuvre-- specifically, young people (mostly girls) with a weakness for moody romance and natural imagery. Should any of these Twilight acolytes be compelled by Sea Wolf's New Moon offering, "The Violet Hour", to seek out the band's newest album, White Water, White Bloom, they'll be welcomely rewarded with a collection of swoony, melodic songs delivered with aching sincerity by lead singer and songwriter Alex Brown Church, and featuring more sighingly idealized poetic images and symbols than you can shake a stick at-- orchards in the snow, morning dew, constellations, and "a pheasant's feather," just to name a few.
Presumably, anyone a bit older and perhaps musically savvier will hear Sea Wolf and immediately recognize that, sonically at least, they've already heard this all before from Bright Eyes and the Arcade Fire, as White Water, White Bloom, the band's second full-length LP (and first as a proper band and not simply a solo endeavor for Church), breaks no new ground. Opener "Wicked Blood" bites the Arcade Fire's exact aesthetic (chugging guitars, swelling strings, quavering vocals, simple but weighty piano melody) to an almost litigious extent, and while the remainder of the album is perhaps not quite as egregious, virtually every song is blatantly beholden to something that's going to be incredibly familiar to any halfway-avid fan of indie-rock. "Orion & Dog", "The Orchard", and the title track are the cuts most overtly indebted to Conor Oberst (particularly from a vocal standpoint), but Sea Wolf actually pillages inspiration from throughout the entire family tree of literate folk-rock, echoing not only Oberst mentors like Tom Petty ("Turn the Dirt Over") and R.E.M. (the intro to the title track) but even the granddaddies of the form, the Byrds, on the album-closing "Winter's Heir".
I can't deny Church is a solid craftsman capable of cranking out extremely inviting pop-rock hooks, but this ground is so well-trod that it's hard to find anything to get even a little bit excited about here unless you're relatively new to indie-rock patronage. A friend of mine who saw Sea Wolf in concert recently testified to the abundance of young attendees who seemed pretty obviously to have been turned on to the band via New Moon. If nothing else, White Water, White Bloom ought to convince plenty of those kids to join Team Alex.
