Tracks:
1. Sporting Life
2. The Argument
3. The Fawn
4. The Ravine
5. Rossignol
6. There You Are
7. Civilise
8. Bird and Flag
9. Black Tree in the Bee Yard
10. Do Now Fairly Well
Band:
Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge, John McEntire
Recorded by John McEntire 1996
Released by Thrill Jockey 1997
The Fawn is the album on which The Sea and Cake goes electronic. Not really, but they do add layers of drum programming and other instrumental sequencing on top of their usual act. Also, the production is crisper than ever before. Often the addition of those elements is bad news for a band but it fits The Sea and Cake nicely. While their songs have always been smooth, here they are completely glazed. Your mind may slip on them because the band has added all kinds of percussion sounds to McEntire’s already complex, driven drumming. The result is psychedelic or, rather, hallucinogenic. It’s not that they have made wanking psychedelic rock music here. It’s that some of the sounds seem like they could have only come from your own mind – possibly after ingesting a psychedelic drug. The slick production helps slide all these sounds down your ear hole before you even realize where they came from.
The first two songs do their best to set the new stage for the band. ‘Sporting Life’ is virtually full of synthesized instruments yet it is far from synth-pop. It’s just The Sea and Cake with a lot of extra sounds. The core band is as present as ever and it is a testament to their strength that they do not sound changed by all this additional stuff – simply enhanced. Also, while Prekop has always sung clearly, softly, and on key – it sounds like he sobered up before entering the studio. Like everything else on this album, his voice has never sounded smoother. ‘The Argument’ is the best example of how this album can make you wonder if you have forgotten that you just dropped LSD two hours ago. No, it just sounds that way. The song is a barrage of percussion; sometimes sliding into the territory of jungle beats. About halfway into the song, the vocals start and you relax into the usual comfortable lounge seat that the band always provides. This is a common technique on
The Fawn. The instrumentation is often given a long while to spread out and develop but, just when you are convinced that you are hearing an instrumental track, the voice, like Voltron’s head, tops it off and make The Sea and Cake complete.
After the first few tracks, the songs begin to sound more like traditional Sea and Cake – just more buttery. They continue to use plenty of effects and extra sounds but the result is the lulling pop that you’d expect from the band.
The Fawn is a mixture of lullabies and mildly forceful indie-pop. It usually depends on whether McEntire and his drum kit want you to dose off or to dance around in your seat. He seems to always control the pace and he turns your emotional dial up and down as easily as he adjusts his synthesizers. ‘Bird and Flag’ is a standout track as it conjures disco with a jangly guitar riff straight out of the late 70s. The rest of the band also doesn’t do much to resist sounding like the Bee Gees. Two quiet, meandering tracks close out the album on a distinctly different note from which it began. It seems like McEntire brought a little bit of Tortoise with him on these because they whisper like mellow post rock without any of the dazzle of the first few songs.
As the years go by I only listen to The Sea and Cake occasionally but when I do,
The Fawn is what I automatically reach for first. I find it their most interesting, if not best, release. To me it is where they hit the sweet spot where freedom and innovation converge to make heroic, forthright pop music.
9.1/10
The Argument
Bird and Flag