Seeker Lover Keeper ★★★★★
Seeker Lover Keeper
46:23 min • Microdata • April 2, 2012
………………………………………………………………………………………….
It’s amazing what a music video can do. Since the creation of MTV in the 80’s, and now through the power of the internet, a visual for a song can be as important as the songs itself, allowing an artist or band to show another side to the story. A good music video can also introduce you to a song that, otherwise, could get lost in the ether. It was therefore intelligent for Australian folk supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper to enlist the help of Australian filmmaker Natalie Van Den Dungen to create a series of video’s for their self titled debut album. Each of the three video’s features a different male actor lip syncing the words to the songs, sometimes straight to camera or, in the case of ‘Light Up My Lights’ (my personal favourite of the three) we see Australian actor Barry Otto (best known to most of us for playing Doug Hastings in Strictly Ballroom) in a dance studio, dancing to himself in the expanse of mirrors. Not only is ‘Light Up My Lights’ one of the highlights of the album, but visuals such as these made me take notice, and I’m glad I did.

For the most part solo artists Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltman and Holly Throsby have come together and created a standard, but haunting folk album, but there are some exceptional gems here. Opener ‘Bring Me Back’ for example has a lo-fi feel, with a simple guitar and close harmony backing that evokes feelings of lying on grass in the summer. The aforementioned ‘Light All My Lights’ is reminiscent of Bat For Lashes, with its hand claps and its occasional electronic blips, which has lead to repeat listens. Other single ‘Even Though I’m A Woman’ is a tale of long distance love and includes some of my favourite lyrics on the album. We’ve all been more in love with the idea of having someone to miss than we are in love with the person in question, which is what this song puts across so eloquently with its lyric

I think I’m in love with missing you,
More than I’m in love.
That’s why I go away all of the time.

Else where, ‘Rely On Me’ has a scratchy electro shimmer not dissimilar to Radiohead, and marries perfectly Sarah Blasko’s haunting vocals with the simple lyrics, underscored by the other girls gorgeous harmonies. The beat stumbles and stutters its way through the song, getting more and more chaotic as it goes and, to be honest, my only criticism of ‘Rely On Me’ is that it is too short, I have to listen to it at least twice to get my fix – maybe I’m just too used to a 7 minute Radiohead opus. Nevertheless, lyrically simple and sonically brilliant, its a welcome deviation from the rest of the album. Also serving as a break from the folk template is the driving guitar of ‘Everytime’ recalling grunge queen Juliana Hatfield, only ever a good thing in my book.

The idea of three solo artists forming a group is not always a good one, and I usually approach these sorts of supergroups with some trepidation, but Seeker Love Keeper have at least done this intelligently. Each song is written by one of the three individually talented singer-songwriters, and interestingly, they rarely sing the lead vocals on their own songs. Writing songs for other people is a foray into something new for all of them, with perhaps the exception of Sally Seltman, who had previously given her song ‘1,2,3,4’ to Canadian singer Feist. The effort to share the vocals between the girls, rather than to appoint a lead singer, gives the album less cohesion but more variety, and serves as good advertisement for each of their solo careers.

If it hadn’t been for the interesting nature of the videos, I may never have become interested in Seeker Lover Keeper, but I am glad I did, as this collection of songs contains some beautiful, heart wrenching and interesting material. And now, thanks to this album, I will also be definitely seeking out each of the collectives solo material also.