HEY ROSETTA! - SEEDS

HEY ROSETTA! - SEEDS

The Newfoundland group has been building quite the following the past few years, since the release of their Polaris-short listed Into Your Lungs disc in 2008. A bit of a hipster band when it first came out on the scene, the group now attracts a youthful market into the high school crowd, yet still manages to claim boomer fans. In concert, they get a solid university-and-up crowd, keen on the big sound, the danceable energy, and lots of live excitement.

The past three years, Hey Rosetta! has been touring constantly. They've bee across Canada a number of times, into the Far East, and Australia, down into the States and over to Europe. That's hard work that pays off. Their reputation has grown steadily, and now you would have to say they are in the A-league of East Coast bands. That touring schedule has certainly had an affect on singer and songwriter Tim Baker. The band's new album, Seeds, has just been released, and it's the result of those long long days and nights of touring and travel, a restless record. Baker has admitted much of it comes from his road reflections and feelings. The title cut is a refence to what he feels the band has become, seeds scattered across the continent, landing in various spots, trying to start something developing whereever they take root. Of course, that gives the whole disc a sense of momentum, and one of being unsettled. Well, that fits the sound Hey Rosetta! have worked on these past years, as they specialize in big, epic tunes that build in tension and layers and volume, and a bit of joyous explosion near the end.

Seeds sees the band explore the softer side a little more, with a few more quiet passages that build into the great big sound, and a few more subtle moments and instruments in there, strings and oboes and french horns. But they can't help themselves, there's never any true ballads, they just have to work those softer times into great big peaks of music. But I like the increased use of the strings here, in some smart places, accenting the beat, sweetening the sound. Lyrically Baker has grown up a bit too, able to tackle some deeper subject-matter. There's strong buzz for the group, and it could be a break-out album, especially if a Rolling Stone magazine prediction about them being one of the Canadian bands to watch comes true. The group have just launched a major North American tour, so now is their time.