By Stan Cierlitsky
I am so excited to be able to review Iceage's fifth album, Seek Shelter, out this Friday on Mexican Summer. To be honest, I am a little late to the Iceage party. I first heard them on 2018's amazing album Beyondless, reviewed on this site here. In fact, the title track is one of my favorite songs of my life, and that's saying something since I am an old man that has constantly devoured new music as long as I've been on this earth.
Back in April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Iceage released a one-off song called "Lockdown Blues". Not only was it a fitting reflection on our new way of living, but it gave a lot of hints as to where the band's sound was about to go. Seek Shelter is way more blues-y rock than we have heard from them so far.
The album opens with the great third teaser called "Shelter Song". This song reminds me so much of Primal Scream's Give Out But Don't Give Up-era. You will hear it with the slide guitar and the soulful background vocals. Fortunately, it doesn't try too hard to conform to Southern Rock standards. There is driving muddy sound pulsing through this song that I just love.
The second song, "High & Hurt", continues along the same path. This song is a little more aggressive, and here is where I really started noticing the muddy production. But I don't mean that as a criticism, because if you really listen, under that muddy layer is some really intricate production and some really cool sounds. I haven't thought so much about a record's production in a long time. I was shocked, and pleasantly surprised, to see that Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) was brought in to produce the record. The muddy layer is something you will hear in a lot of the earlier offerings in the Spacemen 3 catalog, which is just incredible. Oh, and another really cool thing about "High & Hurt" is how they interpret (and include) the chorus of "Will the Circle be Unbroken?".
My favorite song on Seek Shelter was the second teaser single called "Vendetta". Just like "Catch It" on Beyondless, this song really makes me think a lot about The Cure. And I also mean that as a compliment. Robert Smith has a pretty unique voice, but every so often another singer comes along and reminds me of him. Adam Olenius of Shout Out Louds does that from time to time, and so does Elias Ronnenfelt here. To me, this song is not quite so blues-based, and maybe more like what we were hearing on Beyondless.
Another favorite is "Gold City". It starts with a cool harmonica intro. This song has a bit of an early Springsteen swagger to it. I love the lyric, "It's a constant temporary." The prefect phrase to describe this pandemic.
Even though the album is a short nine tracks, there is so much here to dive into. Again, the production is amazing, but Iceage is really evolving into such a great band. If you didn't check them out in 2018 with Beyondless, check them out now. You won't be disappointed with Seek Shelter.
Oh, and they've announced a tour to support this album. Granted they won't be here in Baltimore until March 5, 2022, but it does give me something to look forward to.
Seek Shelter is out on Friday via Mexican Summer.
More details on Iceage via the official website.
[Photo: Fryd Frydendahl]