The Pace Is Glacial

Chronique

The Pace Is Glacial took Seam over three years to complete and finds the Chicago band moving farther and farther away from the cathartic tension/release of its past work. Instead the band goes for a more conventional songwriting approach that yields simply average tunes, stuck in an uneasy middle ground between Versus' soaring hooks or Superchunk's poppier side. Glacial is not a terrible record, but it pales in comparison to Seam's earlier releases. Songs like "Inching Toward Juarez" or the seven-minute-plus "Nisei Fight Song" are too sparse to justify their lengthy running times, drawn out for no apparent reason. Elsewhere the songs are weighed down by haphazard constructions and frontman Soo Young Park's uneven singing, shoved to the forefront of the mix moreso than on any of the band's previous records. "In the Sun" sports one of Seam's most unoriginal melodies yet and an out of place, screamed chorus. But suddenly, the band locks into the album's most excellent groove and rides it out the door. "Little Chang, Big City" is one of the only other standouts, despite borrowing a melody or three from Spent. Ultimately, the band's instrumental monotony deflates significant portions of Glacial's latter third, serving as an anti-climactic end to a highly disappointing album.
© Jonathan Cohen /TiVo