Built For the Sea- Mise en Scène Ep
“Ships are safe at harbor, but built for the sea.” So reads the colorful one-sheet press clipping for the promising San Franciscan band Built For The Sea bearing implications of the band’s desire to expand, explore, and never confine themselves to any “harbor.” Equipped with lead singer 
Lia Rose and her bandmates, The Golden Gate city steals Brooklyn’s “up and coming” thunder with this new pearl of musical talent to add to the top of the “dream-pop” ranks including Cat Power, My Brightest Diamond, The Delgados, and Nicole Atkins.
Lia Rose sings with a deft yet natural sincerity, and similarly, her lyrics come across as truthful, passionate, and unforced. On Built For The Sea’s recent ep, Mise en Scène (released in tangible format on
Along with Rose at the helm, Built For The Sea as a group have shown significant improvement in balancing instrumentation, in production, and in capitalizing on those moments of “magic” or perfect synchronization. The result as heard on Mise en Scène is the crème de la crème of dreamy, sentimental (but never crossing into melodramatic terrain, mind you) pop music.
“Secret Stories” boasts that same enviable ability of pop perfectionists of days past to make the simplest melodies sound beautiful without a trace of coming off as amateurish. Sparse recording and editing make the intro of a single-note piano line and accompanying cello reminiscent of a Bill Callahan-like creation. Also strong in one of Callahan’s greater suits (or to reference farther back and higher up, Leonard Cohen), the song is most successful in its intense intimacy.
With “Give it Time,” the group lives up to its name and they prove themselves as versatile both in ability and in willingness to branch out into different styles and genres. The song begins with eerie, distant electric guitar through heavy, transcendent reverb until Rose’s sobering voice grounds the piece giving the first half of the song a push and pull feel between instrumentation. Leading up to the last minute of the song, however, “Give it Time,” like a separate, living entity, has morphed into a progressive-style build-up and has a minute-long payoff of powerful, staggering hits with slow, dizzying releases that bring back visions of Homer’s “wine-dark sea” that Achilles gazes upon following the death of Patroclus.
Built For The Sea’s ideals manifest lyrically, as well, on Mise en Scène. The album closer, “Pacific,” imagines a situation as it could be while still realizing the situation as it is. Lovelorn and separated, but determined to dream, Rose sings, “So I crossed the Atlantic, It won’t be the first time but maybe, I’ll get you to come back.” Crossing an ocean is not seen as a barrier, but as passageway when you’re Built For The Sea.
Label: Built For the Sea
Release Date:10-17-08
- Erin O’Keefe
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