seconds prior - new words for water

Seconds Prior

New Words For Water
self-released; 2013

4.1 out of 5

By Sean Dennison

Dammit, Seconds Prior, do you know how difficult it is inventing new genre buzzwords to pigeonhole music whose influences are as wide as a shotgun blast? What do you want me to say? Melodramatic art-hop? Emotronica? Novelty core? This whole album, New Words for Water, feels like someone shredded up a bunch of records from the last three decades, mixed it in tar, and poured it on you. Seconds Prior call themselves digicore. I'm not even going to look that up, it would ruin the mystery. Also, they are  two guys who call themselves Sunny (vocals) and Strawberry (keyboards and such). Seconds Prior is a two-piece from Boston, MA. They hail from a five-piece hardcore band, which explains a lot.

Lots of weird stuff going on here, like Xiu Xiu began a revolution using sentient soundboards, or if a bunch of synthesizers crashed an 80s prom. Time signatures are all over the place. Very few of the tracks sound anything close to a conventional pop song. Sunny's voice is awesome, melodramatic and approaching the grandeur of a Johnny Depp musical. The electronic rhythms are vibrant but not very friendly to listen to. The music invites you in the same way a gaunt butler would invite you inside a dark mansion. The music can also get very violent, especially the percussion.

There are lyrics that read like spoken words but the guys make them sound like songs. Like this: "We must plot the next points. No. Don’t relax. No. Don’t lay down. You won’t be here. You can’t afford to trust your kind, your planet or your mind to fix itself. It won’t be fine." That's from "If Dogs Looked Up", about standing up against the man-run reality and stuff.

I don't know man; this music is tough to define. It's confrontational, erratic, at times very challenging. Those looking for a sense of structure will be sorely disappointed. New Words For Water, however, bleeds with purpose. Seconds Prior is on to something here. It has next to no crossover potential, but it's inspiring to listen to and fun as hell. 

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