By Jim Rowland
Featuring Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees, Mad Season), Alain Johannes (Eleven, QOTSA), Duke Garwood (British Singer-Songwriter), and Lisette Garcia (Percussion), alt-rock supergroup Drink The Sea release their highly anticipated third album, simply titled ‘III’, this month.
Drink The Sea’s debut release was last year, taking the slightly unusual step of releasing albums ‘I’ and ‘II’ together. They were highly acclaimed, and rightly so. New album ‘III’, if anything, takes things to an even higher level.
With a collection of musicians with the experience and skill such as this, it’s not surprising that the song writing and execution of the 12 tracks assembled here is of the highest order.
Whether it be the more up-tempo, grooving, rockier tracks like ‘Big Dirty’, ‘Between the Teeth’ and ‘Oh Desire’, the dreamy beauty of ‘Turn To Gold’, ‘I’ll Be Your Shelter’ and ‘Becalmed’, or the more left-field quirky atmospherics of ‘Parisian Voodoo’ and the hypnotic ‘Deep As The Sun’, the album just oozes assured class from start to finish.
The spirit and influence of the great Mark Lanegan, with whom these musicians were of course more than familiar, looms over the album, particularly on the aforementioned Screaming Trees-flavoured ‘Big Dirty’, the dirty blues of ‘It Makes The Rain Slow’ and the haunting album closer ‘The Rubble King’.
Drink The Sea have a fearsome live reputation already after their first tour, and they head over to Europe this month, where they will perform material from their three albums, alongside selected classics from their celebrated former bands, including R.E.M., Screaming Trees, Mad Season, and more.
- ‘Drink The Sea III’ will be released on Friday (2 October).
- Drink The Sea’s tour latest ÜK and Europe tour starts tomorrow (Wednesday 30 September):
