Description
Look Alive is the
ninth album overall by the American instrumental post rock/dream pop band Unwed Sailor, self-released on Current Taste in 2024. Written, performed, recorded, and produced by Unwed Sailor. All songs mixed by Chris Colbert (of Breakfast with Amy fame), Matthew Putman, and Johnathon Ford.
Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Unwed Sailor is Johnathon Ford, Matthew Putman, and David Swatzell.
The instrumental post-rock band’s latest incorporates shoegaze textures and ’80s hooks.
Johnathon Ford’s long running instrumental/post-rock outfit Unwed Sailor just keeps trucking along with their latest release, the very excellent Look Alive. In contrast to 2019’s Heavy Age, Look Alive feels more intense and raucous, with songs that feature shoegaze textures and ’80s hooks alongside Ford’s trademark melodic basslines and the band’s propulsive rhythms.
The whole album is excellent and I could probably write about each and every song’s level of detail. That being said, I do find myself returning primarily to the title track, which recalls classic Cure albums like Seventeen Seconds and Pornography with its moody atmospherics. And then there’s «Camino Reel», which feels like several different songs mashed together, what with the noisy opening that slides into a cleaner, poppy section (that’s one of the album’s brightest moments) and then into a post-punk-y bridge with searing guitars. In the hands of a lesser band, this could’ve easily been a trainwreck, but this is Unwed Sailor we’re talking about, so naturally it all comes together. [Jason Morehead, Opus, June 2020]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/look-alive/1517192717)
CD tracklist:
01. Glaring
02. Look Alive
03. Camino Reel
04. Gone Jungle (GJ Mix)
05. Retrograde
06. Spring Theory
07. Haze
Note: Released on both cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD. Available at Bandcamp: https://unwedsailor.bandcamp.com/album/look-alive
“Look Alive” (MUSIC VIDEO)
“Camino Reel” (MUSIC VIDEO)
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