Seaway: All in My Head EP

Seaway is a five-member ponk (read: pop punk) band from Oakville, Ontario, and they are following up their 2013 EP, Hoser, with another EP, a four-song collection of punchy, upbeat songs called All in My Head. They’ve already been compared to the likes of fellow Canadians Sum 41 and GOB, the latter of which Seaway have toured with. What makes this EP relatively special is the fact that, while Seaway don’t do a whole heck of a lot that’s new and innovate, they do have songwriting chops, and none of these songs fall into the cloying end of things, as is the custom of many ponk bands. Their lyrics are serious, almost emo-ish, and there are some nice touches: “Alberta” has a passage with an acoustic guitar breakdown, and you don’t really hear an awful lot of that in punk, aside from the one song that comes top of mind for me, Hüsker Dü’s “Celebrated Summer”.

In fact, All in My Head feels as though it hews closer to the rock side of the fence than the punk side. “The Let Down”, in particular, has a crisp, crunchy riff that could fill arenas. Final song “If I Came Back for You” has a singalong anthem quality to it. “Your Best Friend” inverts the Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl” to interesting effect. All in all, All in My Head should go far to solidify Seaway as one of Canada’s top talents in the ponk music scene, as this is music that you want to take sincerely. As always with EPs of this nature, you do wonder what the group will have to offer when they get around to delivering their debut full length, since their sound is widely appealing. While the EP does, as EPs are wont to do, feel like a collection of songs rather than an artistic brushstroke, there’s nothing here that’s duff, and each of these songs stand on its own. Indeed, this material will get all up in your head, and Seaway will, I’m hopeful, open the locks and let more ships of music through in the future.