It’s a tricky business this pop thing. Not the teen idol stuff with its costume changes, honorary co-writes and tabloid sensationalism (that’s tricky in its own way, but irrelevant for now), but the side inhabited by folks like Melbourne’s Chris Bolton, who records under the name Seagull. As it becomes increasingly difficult to keep pace with the world’s demands for harder-faster-more, what place does the humble pop song occupy? Are muted, warm tones redolent of sunny spring afternoons enough to carry an album through? Where’s the subversion? Where’s the irony? Where’s the weird?

When presented with a record like Goodbye Weather, these questions rush by like peak-hour traffic. Bolton is a gifted songwriter, that much is clear. An understated acoustic guitar brushes against distant field recordings on ‘Not There Yet’, evoking images of inner-city suburbia. Five tracks in, ‘Joy’ juxtaposes a constantly repeated almost comically upbeat lyrical refrain – “What a joy to be alive” – against dark drums and haunting piano accordion. Bolton’s frail voice – at its best when it’s not at its best, if you get what I mean – is intimate and inviting, if lacking in technique. Channelling his inner minstrel on ‘When’, Bolton strengthens the case he seems (subconsciously, at least) to be making against fuss and bother.

All these mixed feelings culminate in one question: What of pleasantness? It’s something that’s delicately woven throughout the whole of Goodbye Weather, from the lights strumming of ‘Trucks Are Sheep’ to the gentle, half-whispered ‘Spear’. And though it serves Seagull well, there’s a nagging feeling that it’s not enough. Goodbye Weather’s strongest moments are those when its veneer of politeness is undercut by a subtle menace, such as the aforementioned ‘Not There Yet’ or closing track ‘Crow’. Without irony, without any smirking desire to subvert the conventions of songwriting, Bolton enhances the pop sensibilities apparent in these tracks (and others) by positing them against darker, less expected moods. Had this extended to the album as a whole, Goodbye Weather might have been great – as it stands, the word that most frequently springs to mind throughout its duration is “potential”.

by Adam D Mills