Out June 5, 2026
Via Pure Noise Records
Words by: CECILIA PATTISON-LEVI
Seahaven is an American alternative indie-rock band from Torrance, California. Their self-titled album ‘Seahaven’ is a gorgeous “winter blue” melancholic album of 12 songs with real melodic heart. The band comprising of Kyle Soto, Cody Christian, Mike DeBartolo and Eric Findlay have brought together an album rich in sacred and profane imagery that “shines like a beacon” with a sound that is like sliding into a musical “ether”. The emotional resonance is high even when the songs are upbeat. The lead singer’s smooth vocals slide through the band’s atmospheric guitar work and steady rhythm work provided by the understated bass and steady heartbeat like drums.
The album commences with the short song Godsend that has an atmospheric repetitive phrase running underneath the song: “Your right time on time/ You’re a Godsend baby/ I’m a wasteland gimme your line”. While the singer relates a narrative web of relationship failure using Biblical imagery about the fruits of Garden of Eden and the fall of humans into evil and sin. Seahaven’s musicality induces euphoria with the moody instrumentation as the song melds into the second track the appropriately named Hellbound. The tone changes to a harder rock sound with the chugging guitars underpinning the lyricism about relationship breakdown and divorce.
The song Infinite Blue has upbeat melody and drum kick that frames a narrative song of loss and a love lost. It is followed by Midnight Hour with harder strummed guitars clashing in harmony about illicit meetings and broken dreams left in pieces by a lover who looks like an angel with a “halo” who is anything but that. February Flowers that live in “shadows” are “weighted down” with secrets. The song gives the feeling of reaching out to a loved one knowing they won’t reach back. The musicality is smooth and so easy to listen to as the chiming guitars deliver an eerie melody.
The gentle synths start Remember Me as the guitars chime in the background of this distorted haunting rock ballad. The song swells with drums and clearer guitar melodies as the song moves into the verses and chorus as the “hurt reverberates”. The song has an odd ending with another song echoed that has the listener thinking about an ocean breeze. Highwire follows and it is another song with reverberating guitar riff that echoes with yearning in the distance.
The instruments and rhythm are minimalist and at times deceptively upbeat like in the songs Million Ways and the album highlight of Tidal Wave. But the lyricism is heartbreakingly emotive as feelings ‘splinter’. There is the same upbeat rock melody in the Long Goodbye but the song is deliberate and heavy about loss, guilt “and the price to pay” as relationships fail. Then, Wedding Bells is an emotional wasteland of neglect in love: a “carried darkness”. It is reflective without being overly dramatic, emotional without shouting for attention.
The album closes with the song Companion and it’s a mid-tempo song about “heaven being in the human touch” and “kindness” the female vocals add to the spectral atmospheric musical moodiness that comes “from the bottom of the ocean”. The ending message is “peace by with thee”.
Seahaven’s self-titled album is a sophisticated winner with complex rock songs that are catchy, atmospheric and immaculately produced. The emotion is heavy as the mellifluous and technically skilled vocals deliver lyricism fixed in lived experience framed by outstanding guitar work.
