Seafoam Walls Releasing New LP 'Standing Too Close To The Elephant In The Room'

Miami-based band Seafoam Walls have announced their sophomore album, Standing Too Close To The Elephant In The Room, out October 18 via Don Dia. Offering the LP’s first preview is the lead single “Cabin Fever.” With a massive riff that’ll stick in your head like duct tape, the track is a thrilling reintroduction of the band’s knotty mix of jazz, shoegaze, rock, hip-hop, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms — self-dubbed ‘Caribbean jazzgaze’ — that fueled their debut LP XVI to acclaim from from Pitchfork, SPIN, Afropunk, Under The Radar, BrooklynVegan, FLOOD Magazine, Audiotree and beyond, and touring slots with Thurston Moore, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Sam Evian. 

“‘Cabin Fever’ describes a time where I was on tour with a band I used to play with and the community they introduced me to, it felt strange how homogenized they were,” lead singer Jayan Bertrand says. “The second verse is critical of the world’s mass consumption and being willfully ignorant to maintain happiness.”

Standing Too Close To The Elephant In The Room represents an exciting new chapter for the band. Not only does it showcase Seafoam Walls' evolution as musicians, but it also solidifies their reputation as boundary-pushing artists, inviting the listener to experience their music through a Technicolor mist of experimental influences and instrumentation. Demonstrating their commitment to full artistic autonomy, the band — rounded out by Dion Kerr, Josh Ewers, and Josue Vargas —  took on the role of self-producers once again, shaping an album that rewards those who revel in its sweeping soundscapes as it delves deeper into questioning the trappings of modern society and all of the contradictions it entails. 
 
The album’s title is a metaphor for the often overlooked but significant challenges and complexities that people face in their lives, and a warning about getting caught up in the details at the risk of missing the bigger picture. As Jayan explains, "Everyone has an elephant in the room; an obvious problem in their life that everyone, including the person affected, knowingly looks past. BUT, I say that one is standing too close because the problem is more complex and their vision is too obstructed to see the bigger picture. So viewers are providing skewed perspectives of the same problem. It’s an illustration of the areas in which intersectionality fails to meet." 
 
Heady music for heady times. A moment that Seafoam Walls is all too ready to meet. 

Standing Too Close To The Elephant In The Room Tracklist

1. Humanitarian pt. I
2. Humanitarian pt. II
3. Stretch Marks
4. Rapids
5. Hurricane Humble
6. Cabin Fever
7. Sad Bop
8. Ex-Rey

Photo Credit: Christopher Nazon