Sea Girls - Open Up Your Head

And so another of this golden crop of hyped Indie Hitters step up to the plate. Sea Girls have been cruising through the gears of late, with prime festival slots and a string of big shows making their rapid rise seem ridiculously easy. But for any that might think that it’s been a painless process, then ‘Open Up Your Head’ is a revelation. Sure, on one level it is a beer-flinging, scenes-starting, mates-hugging riot of a record. But, largely written while Henry Camamile suffered from depression and an untreated head injury, it is also a subtle reflection on the tangled thoughts of the frontman and lyricist.

It’s exciting to see a band so unabashedly ambitious in their sound and delivery on a debut. From the first moments of ‘Transplant’, there is no disguising where, and how high, they are aiming for. With huge call-and-response numbers, hooks that grab at you like a thousand tentacles, and vocals that resonate with feeling and emotion, the opening tracks roll past at an extraordinary rate. These are moments custom-built for the biggest of stages, delivered with supreme confidence.

Smuggling tales of painful honesty and self-doubt under rainbow layers of effervescent, colourful vibrant indie pop, ‘Open Up Your Head’ is a real Trojan horse of a record at times. Tracks like ‘Closer’ and ‘Ready For More’ spark like rockets flying through the night, while the gargantuan ‘Violet’ still shines and stands proudly as a Proper Banger to end all others. “Kill the past, forget the future” Henry sings at one point, and that’s never sounded so prescient. Sea Girls started off the year reaching for the stars. They might end it walking amongst them.

Jamie MacMillan