In truth, I really liked Seahaven’s Winter Forever album. I must have listened to it about 8-9 times since getting it in my workload and some of those sessions followed one after the other after the other. Yet, it always felt like the time had simply flown by. The album, which has a run time of 37 minutes and 1 second, is neither too long nor too short, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the album ended to quickly for me. Worse yet after every listen I couldn’t even describe to you off hand what I’d just heard. Is the album that unmemorable or is it, in all of its simplicity, simply an album that you can’t fathom on the first or ninth go around?

The first thing that caught my attention is that the album isn’t perfect. It has a bit of an under produced sound. Instruments seem to fall over one another at some point I almost all of the songs. Maybe I’ve spent so many years buying up economically recorded demo’s that it’s just nostalgic for me to hear something that you can tell is good but has that quirky little bit of imperfection that humbles it to the ear. In any case that is one aspect of the album that was endeared to me. The other was Kyle Soto’s vocal delivery. It’s also not perfect. If I had to compare it to anything I’d have to say it reminds me of singers like Rodney Anonymous or Gordon Gano. Its playfully doled out but hides beneath it a serious tone as well and Soto manages to step up to the plate on more serious songs, but I wouldn’t call him a strong singer, track 9, Honeybee, will attest to that, it being the albums only raw acoustic tune.

Despite what some may consider flaws (I consider them courageous) the album manages to remain fresh, at least for me, through every session with it. By music standards, and I mean that as by which most bloggers will hold the music accountable toward a genre if you have to use on, it’s a mix of Emo, Post-Hardcore, and Pop. I guess I could see that. Still, the album has legs of its own and all it takes is really listening to it the one time to understand that it’s an album that has depth and will more then likely live in heavy rotation in your collection for awhile at least. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.