During this period of profound uncertainty, it helps indeed to be reminded that indie pop anthems can still provide some troubled souls with a sense of calm and simple pleasure. SEA GIRLS are in your corner, forging elements of Bastille with brightly formed architecture, reflecting an ambition to erect big banners across the horizon that gently hug and smile with the legend ‘rejoice in the now and be ready to embrace tomorrow’.

Formed in London 2015, Henry, Rory, Andrew and Oli release this, their major label debut on Polydor : just at the right time, just when peeps would really love to be congregated in a field waving their arms and just being together and celebrating the unhindered joy of verse / chorus / verse / middle 8 and on - forever. Unfortunately, masks and social distancing have, at least temporarily, put a stop to that kind of open-minded silliness…

Sea Girls have a knack, a real knack at coming up with tunes that help paper over the cracks. ‘Weight In Gold’ contains the lyric ‘We’ll never be late in life’ and this somehow makes these boys immensely likeable, already bursting with their crazy optimism. Of course, formulae are at work here and they press all the brightly coloured buttons, echoing bands like Frightened Rabbit, tapping into the slightly feverish teenage nervous system, scraping away at the contours of a heart, niggling away with an insistent chorus, eyes a little blurry, the glitter washing away in a late summer shower, the brightness of a new dawn.

Sea Girls won’t profoundly affect your life and, let’s face it, they don’t need to. What this collection of songs will achieve is to subtly encroach upon the casual listener and make their heart beat a little faster, veer off the main road and find that wheat-filled field, that sun-dappled glade, that expanse of blue, a clear rock pool, emerging from the waves with a new grin.

Songs here all clock in at just over 3 and ½ to 4 minutes. Songs that build to foaming water slide, predictably BIG choruses, mid-song scaffolds that explode gently in your ears. They will win you over, if you let them and it’s really not that difficult; don’t feel ashamed. I can imagine that the major chords began around campfires, pianos emerged, lyrics tumbled into view, like on ‘You Over Anyone’, a heartfelt paean to a sweet love (‘come as you are…I choose you…stay with me ‘til the sunrise’). It brims with the impossibility of this moment ever ending.

The production is pristine, the verses pile into pre-choruses. In opener, ‘Transplant’, I hear Biffy Clyro. Sea Girls love a bit of repetition, allow their hearts to be vulnerable. I could have allowed my cynicism to get the better of me here but I am finding it really hard. I am sold, out of mind, out of time – I shouldn’t like this but then I realise, finally, that this is what I really need, right now, to make me feel good, in fact, better than good.

I think we need to celebrate bands like Sea Girls, bands unfettered by world-weariness and everyday suffering. It helps the rest of us to appreciate the colourful obviousness of anthems that address regular hopes and fears with an upbeat smile, tight rhythm section and enough variety in the vocal department to keep you, humble listener, tied in and engaged. More power to them and their uncanny ability to tap into the familiarity and easy happiness found in friendship.  Thank you, Sea Girls, for providing and enhancing the soundtrack to every teenager and twenty-something’s late summer.

Hugh Ogilvie.    

Buy the album and other merch at their WEBSITE now