The Weight Recommends: The Silver Seas

I've had these two 'New-Music Sampler' CDs, that were packaged with a copy of Paste Magazine I'd gotten in the mail, sitting in my apartment since last summer.  Every time I'd come across them while cleaning my place, I decided that I couldn't throw them out without first dropping them in the CD player.  Well, here we are six months later and I've just gotten though the first one (July 2010) with the other one left to go (June 2010). 

What I'd planned to do, in listening to each CD, is downselect the songs I liked and then from there I would pick a single favorite that I could recommend here on The Weight.  I figured there'd at least be a few per disc that I'd enjoy enough to put on my short list.

I started working my way through each of the 20 songs on the first disc, including some artists I'd heard of before (Menomena, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Andrew Bird) and many that I had not (Blue Giant, Wintersleep, The Young Veins, Spree Wilson).  I'd gotten through 18 songs before I really liked anything that I heard.  What's so disappointing is that Paste Magazine is a publication that I really respect.  In a few cases, the intro was decent enough but I found myself turned off after a few vocal lines.  I consider myself to be pretty open-minded about music, accepting that in all genres there are good and bad songs, and these songs didn't do it for me.  At least based on my first listens. 

So after suffering through 90% of the July sampler, I finally heard what I was hoping for.  In the second to last track I found a song that I could confidently put my seal of approval on.  It's Track 19 from the July 2010 Paste Magazine New Music Sampler.  And its by Nashville band The Silver Seas on their April release Chateau Revenge.  The song is called "Best Things In Life" and its not just the best song on the CD, its one of the best songs I've heard in months.  The Pointer Sisters wish they could still groove like this!

The Silver Seas
'Best Things In Life'
Chateau Revenge



Bonus Content:
Here's another song by the Silver Seas that both nameschecks The Weight favorites ELO and also does a damn fine job of replicating their sound.  Jeff Lynne would be proud. 

The Silver Seas
"What's The Drawback"
Chateau Revenge