Beneath the metallic sheen of goth rock, the cult band’s third album addresses the disquieting anxieties of adulthood with vengeful indignation.
The songs on Sea of Worry are a bit duller than the invigorating, draining and explosive songs presented on previous projects, but still serves as the grown-up, easy to access version of a group that is yet to release anything not worth your while.
Have A Nice Life’s third album is more accessible than you might expect from the Connecticut shoegazers’ miserabilist reputation.
Sea of Worry becomes something I never thought I’d label Have a Nice Life: predictable.
Sea of Worry is by a mile HANL's stalest, least imaginative album yet.
And here we see AOTY stans riot. Everyone's favorite shoegaze bitches are back with their version of a punk record.
You already know how this goes. It's Have a Nice Life! Creators of two fantastic shoegaze records that have been a STAPLE in nearly every AOTY list for 'best albums of all time'. We ALL know that Deathconciousness is a modern classic, and we ALL know how much The Unnatural World opened up Have A Nice Life to a more wider demographic, becoming accessible while still remaining ... read more
If you stripped the emotion and nihilism out of Deathconsciousness, you would be left with this rather cookie-cutter shoegaze album. It's fine to vibe to, some of the verses are catchy, and I'm spacing out to it in class. After The Unnatural World, I'm not sure if high expectations are fair for HANL. Deathconsciousness was a rare album that captured the best of all their qualities, and likely will not be replicated again. I guess we have to just accept HANL for who they are now.
(Sick album ... read more
Is this their worst? So far, absolutely.
Is this terrible? Absolutely not.
I genuinely respect the fact that they didn't chase the success of "Deathconsciousness" and tried something different.
However, result could be better. I think "Sea of Worry" causes mixed feelings because of two reasons:
1) Clean recorded instruments don't work well with processed vocals (at least in this case). It feels like you're listening to a live performance rather than a studio recording. ... read more
The expectation of Have A Nice Life to keep making Deathconsciousness is getting a bit ridiculous. I love that album as much as the next guy but if you keep expecting every HANL release to sound like that the odds are you aren’t going to like it. But this album actually sounds pretty good, I like that they tried something new with Post-punk and I think they succeeded.
1 | Sea of Worry 4:40 | 76 |
2 | Dracula Bells 7:44 | 74 |
3 | Science Beat 5:35 | 79 |
4 | Trespassers W 4:49 | 77 |
5 | Everything We Forget 4:12 | 65 |
6 | Lords of Tresserhorn 6:07 | 76 |
7 | Destinos 13:12 | 65 |