Built For The Sea - Mise En Scene
It’s not often when I’m writing a review will I kick off with a mention of the album’s packaging but in this instance I just have to. The CD arrived in a beautiful card gatefold that sports a panoramic view of a tree-city (see picture for clarity) and was sealed up with glittery string, really lovely. What was outside is a fair reflection of the contents inside too. ‘Mise En Scene’ (a theatrical term meaning ‘placing on stage’ for the hard of French) is five tracks of melodic, indie lovliness.
Opening track ‘The (re) Adjust’ has an intro reminiscent of Embrace’s ‘All You Good, Good People’ but soon leaves that behind to reveal Lia Rose’s beautiful voice and a lush melodic hook. This album is shot through with references to early nineties era Indie. The Sundays, Cranes, even a hint of Early Cranberries and The Cure (musically, anyhow) all spring to mind as the tracks progress.
'Pictures’ is a complex and musically dense song with spiralling guitar lines entwining Rose’s dreamy vocal, this leads into ‘Secret Stories’, a more stripped back, piano led number that that leaves the vocal front and centre and has a nursery rhyme or lullaby feel to it and summons the spirit of Tori Amos in her pomp, sublime.
The record closes with the longest track on the album, the epic ‘Pacific’ that builds from a gentle opening to a crescendo of guitar and vocal five minutes later and then sadly that’s it. Sporting only the five tracks it’s hard to know whether this is really an album or an extended EP (mini-album?) but it is short and sweet and definitely leaves the listener wanting more, and I guess that’s the best way to leave ‘em.
Top Tracks: 'Pictures', ‘Pacific’.