Carpenter are from Vancouver and their line-up includes alumni of All State Champion, By a Thread and Daggermouth. I only know of the latter myself, mainly from seeing them mentioned on PunkNews and wondering if their name was a Family Guy reference. Funny story huh? But then I guess making jokes about The Carpenters is way more predictable. Those are the jokes, folks.
So, what you have here is nostalgic, slightly gainy but clean melodic punk rock chock full of power chords, octaves and passionate vocals. The way the songs are written and sung makes them sound really quite triumphal, but on closer examination this isn’t often the case. Much of the album follows a consistent thematic thread, beginning with ‘Mean Things’ in which we’re told about a relationship splintering: there’s still a lot of love but the titular “mean things” are said… over the phone, too. The music is catchy and infectious which characterises much of the album; it’s an unexpected juxtaposition with a lot of the lyrics but this record is very much of the attitude “life may be hard but that shouldn’t stop us being positive”.
Some of the lyrics can initially seem overly simple and embarrassingly earnest in places, but on repeat listens it all begins to fit together a lot better. The simplicity helps the story being told over the course of the record remain clear – where it wants to be – and also helps emphasise an earthy sense of honesty that can be lost by over-indulgence in histrionic poetics.
I won’t run through the full story of the album; if you care that much I’m sure you’ll investigate! But some highlights are ‘Just Another Friday Night’, which is about getting out of town to escape the aftermath of a broken relationship; getting drunk and showing up at someone’s front door. This song’s also got some overtly country-rock moments, particularly in a few snatched moments of lead guitar and the singer’s lapse into throatier rasping. ‘Northern Exposure’ seems to briefly step away from the album’s overall narrative but is a good example of effective lyrical simplicity with “It’s not about the fun, it’s being proud of what I’ve done” being used to explain/justify why a life of solitude is a positive thing. “We don’t need another sad song”, for sure.
Another solid example is ‘One Horse Town’, which inverts the usual rock cliché about getting away from a dull hometown by portraying a tale of broken big city dreams and a hearkening back to a simpler, quieter life. It’s overtly nostalgic, sure, and some might argue you can never go back, but apparently Carpenter have a thing for the life of the independent farmer to the extent of 1.) promoting sustainable farming methods over corporate agribusiness, and 2.) frontman Daniel Sioui retreating to an isolated Ontario farm to write much of the album. That aside, the album is primarily focused on personal journeys and the references to the life of farmers are mostly limited to unspecific mentions of long days and hard work.
Sea to Sky is a pretty solid album, but it won’t be for everyone. Musically it’s inspired by a lot of rootsy classic Americana that will resonate with you if you grew up with or have developed an affinity for it, but if you’re not familiar with the work of John Cougar Mellencamp and his ilk you may miss out on some subtler elements of the songs on offer here. However, the foundation for the bulk of the songwriting is melodic punk rock, with the poppier end of the 90s emo/post-emo spectrum heavily represented, so there’s still plenty else to like. And as an added bonus the album has a decent lyrical narrative that touches on a variety of fairly universal themes, some of which you may find sympathetic.
MySpace | Gold Stock Records (Canada) | Paper + Plastick (US)