seasunsalt - Half dreaming, morning rays
Enigmatic, emotional yet assured, Half dreaming, morning rays is the debut album from seasunsalt and explores the space between night and day, hope and reality, to create not just ordinarily beautiful dreamy pop, but also express fragile feelings for a more substantial connection.
Led creatively by singer-songwriter Mayu Fujita and supported by guitarist Yuya Kamase of CAIVVAS, seasunsalt welcomes you with all the hallmarks of dream pop with the female vocals, clean picked guitar and plenty of reverb. Dream pop being what it is means that although its typically beautiful and pleasing to listen to, everything can kind of start sounding the same when everyone’s going for the same mood and texture. But to write seasunsalt off as another Beach House clone would be doing a great disservice to Fujita because she really is the main attraction, doing all the lyrics and composition and even the artwork.
As a young woman finding her way in the world, the songs on Half dreaming, morning rays are mostly about feelings of uncertainty and confusion (six), the desire to be with someone (pjm4, normal, comeover, night&day) and the “what could have been” lament when it doesn’t work out (kamoshirenai). Perhaps you’ve been there, deep in a sleepless night with someone important to you. It’s a time for confessions and decisions (wonder, AM4), when hope is strongest before the reality of the new day comes. It’s personal and intimate, but she never talks about actual events or place names so its possible for anyone to relate.
Although this is pretty standard singer-songwriter fare which usually goes with acoustic guitar and cajon, seasunsalt keeps it interesting with the arrangement, featuring things like woodblocks, harps and steel pan at times while the synth stabs and drones create impact kind of like old school Album Leaf. At the same time, you won’t hear anything over the top (no strings or choirs here) nor is it oversaturated or washed out. It’s restrained and mature, keeping the right balance between creating movement and interest as well as space for drops and Fujita’s voice. She doesn’t hide behind effects or stacks, she sings with conviction and saves the falsetto/breathy stuff sparingly for most impact like the climax of “Night & Day.” She also picks some quirky English lines which work well rhythmically, particularly in “six“ its almost Haim-like in the delivery.
Half dreaming, morning rays is a very promising debut album and it’s a very pleasant listen on repeat. The next question of course is, what comes next? As seasunsalt, Fujita seems to have made her living so far exploring the uncertainty and delicate beauty of young love without going into personal specifics or characters, but there’s so much more world out there. In the realm of dream pop, you could easily branch into more epic soundscapes, get psychedelic, go dark or create new worlds. As beautiful as it is so far, it would be a shame for seasunsalt to stay the same album after album, so let’s hope they get the chance to experiment and explore new ideas going forward. They certainly are capable.
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