Album Review: Hey Rosetta! – Seeds

For a band that is always on the go, it is not surprising that their latest album Seeds has a distinct traveling flavour to it. For a band traveling forward with so much momentum including multiple ECMA awards, a Polaris Prize shortlist, and an ever expanding audience and fanbase, they have decided not to apply the brakes even slightly as they plow forward full steam on the new album.

Opening track “Seeds” has become a staple of their live shows, starting off with mandolin and Tim Baker’s before being joined by thunderous guitars, drums, bass, and strings to propel the rest of the song forward as Tim Baker sings about not looking back. “In a way it’s about what our lives had become, and how we’re like seeds that float around into different fields and cities, bringing something and trying to build something for the people that come to see us.”  The orchestral string arrangements and largeness of the opening track are a clear indication that the band are ready to embark on an adventure of epic proportions. While Hey Rosetta’s previous albums and EPs were full of songs that followed the start-slow-then-explode-into-awesomeness formula fairly closely, Seeds sees a number of songs that abandon that formula and jump right into a grittier and rockier sound. First single “Welcome” is a great example of this as the song right away is greets you with thunderous drums and guitars as Tim Baker delivers a song written for a friend’s newborn baby about bringing new life into a messed up world.  A highlight of the album comes during the song “Young Glass”, a song written after Tim finished reading “Franny and Zooey” by J.D. Salinger.

“It’s sort of directed at the novel’s main character, Franny…. it describes a sleepwalking scene that didn’t actually occur in the book, but one that I imagined. We spent a lot of time flying and sleeping on planes and in airports and I was always finding myself in half-waking states, feeling, as one does, all alone somewhere between dream and reality. When I’d wake up, I was always surrounded by people, going about their business. I like that; a sort of evidence that even when we think we are completely alone, we are not. So I wrote Franny, a character who is plagued by such thoughts, a song about it… but it’s really about everyone”.

The vivid imagery and beauty of the poetic lyrics of this track show Tim Baker’s continuing maturity in his songwriting. The cello and violin arrangements that sweep throughout the track are perhaps the best string arrangements on any of their songs to date.

Seeds also features a few moments where the band tries things not found on Into Your Lungs. The track “Bricks” is built around some almost Radioheadesque production in the way the guitars chime and strings drop in on the song as it climaxes. “New Sum” starts off with some poppy piano that seems to be borrowed from the Plan Your Escape era, but around half way evolves into a completely different song heading in a new direction from where it started. “Yer Fall” is similar to “New Sum” in the way that the starting point and end point are in no way connected in a linear fashion.

These tracks show that Hey Rosetta! aren’t content to settle in on one safe sound, but rather be constantly moving forward and trying new things while not abandoning all the elements of their sound that their fans have come to know and love.  Seeds is fast paced, it is ambitious, and is just another step in the career of one of Canada’s best bands. The narratives and imagery that are painted throughout the album combined with the strong musical components of the album are sure to have you coming back to listen to Seeds for a very long time.

Seeds will be released on February 15th. Tracklist and more info here.

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