Sea of Days by Rachel Believes in Me

Rachel_believes_in_me_WEB.jpg

1. Saturday OK
2. Sea of Days
3. Kill Kill Kill Kill
4. Books on the Table
5. End U! End Me!
6. Coincedence
7. Koya, Do You Cook?
8. Aberdeen Fishing Girls
9. Ten Seconds

‘Sea Of Days’ is Rachel Believes In Me’s newest release, deemed ‘Dark Folk/Dark Rock’ in genre. All ten tracks have a very fresh sound that rein in the noise pop song craft, alternative college rock and dirty grunge. The sonic sheen throughout the album adds polish and stylistic quality while at times we get songs with more astringency and sometimes, songs that sound like a feeble, petulant complaint (in a strangely good sort of way). The band reveals a creative, and affectionate devotion to craftsmanship to detail – seen in ‘Koya, Do You Cook?’ (Track 7) – a loose, raw and light instrumental with a japanese narrative over it and ‘Saturday OK’ (Track 1) – an airy, steady piece with their hook ‘Saturday, always, ok.’ Rachel Believes In Me don’t dramatically try to toy with dynamics or anything like that, its their layering technique and uniqueness in effect and medium that work more than effectively on their own. ‘Coincedence’ (Track 6) almost has a carnival, young adolescent touch to it, but as we look back, ‘Books On The Table’ (Track 4) appears to have grown up from that tone and has an uneasy pressure to it. Their album title track ‘Sea of Days’ (Track 2) definitely has a cryptic set of words that can be interpreted in a variety of different ways too – does it allude to the progression or choices of/in life? Or is the meaning more or less very simple and straightforward? The 9-track CD ends with a flawlessly timed count to ten in three languages, Mandarin, Chinese and English that seems pretty hypnotizing to me….

Ultimately I could say they should be revered as a group. They’ve been identified in a couple of songs as upcoming owners of Hong Kong’s take on alternative modern grunge that decides to go off on a fun little tangent from time to time.
– Chloe Cheng

Be Sociable, Share!