Growing up is hard, but Sea Girls’ Midnight Butterflies makes it a bit more bearable.
Picture this: the credits to a coming-of-age movie are rolling and an obscure indie track is playing in the background. There’s a sense of lightness that washes over you, and for a moment, everything is alright. This is Sea Girls’ Midnight Butterflies.
“Our journey as a band has made me more confident and I haven’t had any inhibitions making this album,” lead singer Henry Camamile details in an interview with Dork. With two studio albums and three EPs under their belt prior to this release, there’s no longer any room for worrying or hesitating.
In an Instagram post on release day, the band writes, “There’s an abundance of euphoria, love songs and real life on this album.” Let’s explore it.
The opening and title track sets the pace of the record from the very first beat. Camamile describes this album as being about “letting go, allowing yourself to indulge in that need to escape and be carefree.” Though the band grapples with some heavy topics, they don’t let their sound mellow out completely. Drums, guitars, keyboards, and synthesizers keep the music alive as Camamile contemplates, “You were 20 something / now you’re 25.”
There’s a tempo change with “Horror Movies” that almost sounds like something off of an album by The 1975. Camamile reflects on his youth and how life has changed as he’s grown older. Priorities shift, the world evolves whether it be for better or worse, and memories of what used to be are all that remains of the past. It’s a stunning track, perfectly titled, that only gets better the more you listen to it.
The introspective and gloomy “Does Only God Know That We’re Lonely?” aptly follows the uncertainty of “Horror Movies.” There’s a continued decline in tempo here powered by background vocals and persistent drum beats. Their melancholy sound continues in “Scream And Shout,” later picked up again in the electrifying “Weekends And Workdays.”
Midnight Butterflies comes to a close with “After Hours.” Camamile reflects on a past relationship, stuck on the past while trying to move on. There’s a final what if? moment as the song fades and he sings, “But if he wasn’t there, would you come around?”
The band’s third record is astoundingly confident and a pleasure to listen to. This is the music belonging to a band who has not only found their sound, but believes in it and knows exactly which direction they’re headed.
