The Best Record You’ve Never Heard: Brown Horse recommend a beauty by Lily Seabird
A band from Norwich called Brown Horse does have an air of Alan Partridge about it. However, the best thing about the group is that they’d be well aware of that. The wry, slacker spirit of the lo-fi rock outfit is resplendent with a comic, satirical charm. Above all, there is also a sense of friendship, too. There’s a chemistry to the gang that is conveyed perfectly in their upbeat mix of honesty and irreverence.
The story of their latest album, All the Right Weaknesses, typifies that. “We’d been on the road in Europe for over two months by the time we arrived at the studio to start recording,” they explain. “We were pretty much constantly together, spending hours in the van listening to the same music, exploring unfamiliar places and playing shows almost every night. That was sort of the creative justification for playing so many dates ahead of recording, to find that level of coherence.”
They certainly found that and delivered a shimmering road record. As they continue, “We’d slept on floors and in construction sites, caught midnight ferries, driven a Ford Transit past incredible Norwegian fjords, and been towed from a snowbank in the middle of nowhere by a man in shorts and flip flops. It was pretty cool to be that tuned into each other, and have that shared experience going into recording an album.”
That feeling of pursuing your creative muse at all costs is one that is not just notable in their latest album but also the music that they love. Lily Seabird is a Burlington singer-songwriter who is also embracing the rigours of the modern music industry and coming out on top with tunes that portray a similar sense of wit and earnest yearning. So, it is not all that surprising that Brown Horse implore you to listen.
Brown Horse recommend Alas by Lily Seabird:
Brown Horse: “Full disclosure, you might not have heard this record, but you definitely will ‘cos Lily is about to pop off. These are songs you instantly recognise on hearing them for the first time. Since I started listening to Lily Seabird, I’ve been craving her voice, and that’s not an itch that can be scratched by anyone else. Her raw, warbling, sometimes breathy, sometimes talky voice feels like she’s speaking directly to you. Or that maybe you’re overhearing something you shouldn’t be.”
“That intimacy runs a slow current through the rest of the record. My favourite kind of riffs, broken up guitars, piano lines you feel you’ve known forever. Nothing feels forced. It’s like Lily just had to dig up the songs out of the soils of the decommissioned landfill site her and her pals seem to live at, and give ‘em life. The album feels solidly grounded in Lily’s world, like she’s inviting you to sit in her yard on a cool autumn evening, you’re cracking a beer, the fly zapper sparking intermittently, maybe friends are coming and going, the FM radio is on in the house, not fully tuned to one station. We can’t get enough of it.”
Seabird, like her praise-singing pals, has also just released a new record, Trash Mountain. In their latest offerings, both acts have a handy knack for flitting between genres, capturing what life on the road feels like for touring forces in the 2020s. Needless to say, it’s bittersweet, and you’ll no doubt be able to catch them near you soon.
