Ceylon Sailor’s debut album, Here We Lie, released on June 27th by boutique indie label Stunning Models (home to The Fictionals, Will Stratton, and Scheffer Stevens), is an exhilarating throwback meticulously crafted to adhere to lo-fi, chamber pop parameters. The album was recorded with only analog instruments; there are no drum edits, and everything that sounds like an electric guitar is an acoustic distorted within two inches of its life.
The quintet comes complete with 1990s indie-rock accoutrements. Members of Ceylon Sailor founded the cult Brooklyn-based indie-rock venue Gold Sounds. Here We Lie was recorded at the collaborative The Buddy Project recording studio in Queens, New York, where studio owner/producer and Ceylon Sailor producer/drummer Kieran Kelly has recorded some iconic indie albums, including Illinois by Sufjan Stevens. In addition to KM and Kieran, Ceylon Sailor is bassist Seth Ondracek, keyboardist and backing vocalist Andrew Wood, and trumpeter Dave Long. KM brought trumpeter Dave Long on board because he once played a show covering in its entirety Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 classic, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
“When I Was By Your Side” is the anthemic highlight from Here We Lie, which beautifully showcases the intricacies that make Ceylon Sailor such an exciting and rejuvenating listen. The breezy, stadium-sized stand-out encompasses the pain of heartbreak and spins it into a jovial, freewheeling piece of folksy rock that is as infectious as it is complex. Lyrically, the band pens a heartbreaking tune centered around losing something you took for granted, and the earth-shattering realization that it’s too late. Those palpable emotions are juxtaposed by crunchy guitar riffs, blaring horn sections, and crashing drums that take the downtrodden lyrics and present them with radio-ready gusto. The magic is in the nuances of “When I Was By Your Side.” While the bright vocal melodies lean to the conventional side, the instrumentation throws in off-kilter bursts of experimentation, creating an enticing sonic conflict that is simply irresistible. “When I Was By Your Side” balances the dark with the light in a stunning display of Ceylon Sailor’s individuality.
