ALBUM: Sea Lion - 'Desolate Stars'

Sea Lion‘s music – as her name suggests – is streamlined, muscular, and elegant in its execution. Whilst her sound transpires much clearer when heard live, her debut album Desolate Stars provides the listener with a shining example of her beautiful, understated, raw talent.

The eight tracks on Desolate Stars allow Sea Lion (aka Linn Osterberg) to showcase her intriguing approach to creating delicate, but powerful, music. The Swedish singer’s careful use of solo electric guitar and infinite reverb gives the album a fluid, melancholy undercurrent.

It’s difficult to criticise Osterberg’s pure vocals, but her unique style of singing occasionally means her lyrics are not easily discernible on first listen. The scratchy opener ‘Intro’ is a quiet 30 seconds of mild background noise, setting the precedent for the rest of the record: a raw, intimate recording.

‘He Wears a Smile’ plays out like a gentle lullaby. The melancholy guitar riff and carefully repeated vocals slowly build and fade away – like mixed feelings towards a distant lover. The poignant track ‘If My Baby’ follows, and Sea Lion’s woeful moans towards the end of the song echo with an intense, romantic solitude.

‘Ghostlands’, ‘Plains’, and ‘Baby’s Town’ are tracks which ache with charming despondency, but ‘Room’ is the stand-out track on the album. It’s enchanting and evasive, both lyrically and musically, and demonstrates some of Osterberg’s strongest vocal work. The track’s ambiguous name, and Osterberg’s melancholy keyboard motif, will resonate with anyone who has suddenly been overwhelmed on a lonely night by their smallness.

The eponymous ‘Desolate Star’ closes the album, and is filled with enlightening, up-beat guitar riffs and more of Sea Lion’s pensive vocals. This completes her collection of visceral, emotive, intensely human songs. Desolate Stars is best saved for a bitter sweet evening of solitude – or a quiet, cloudy night of internal contemplation.

Desolate Stars is available to download from iTunes from 28 August.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut