Sennen - Widows
[Hungry Audio]

If a band’s debut album is the time for them to put everything they have learned up to that point into practice, Sennen have clearly learned well. With a sound that’s been honed through the rigours of their live shows, they’ve emerged with an album that’s experimental, but possesses a beating pop heart at its centre.

The repetitive, mantra like vocals are the perfect counterpoint for their sprawling, expansive guitar sound. Opener ‘I Couldn’t Tell You’ begins with a devastatingly simple melody, before gradually building to a climax of shimmering, opiated guitars. ‘Opened Up My Arms’ is a moment of pure pop, totally disarming in it’s wooziness, embellished with chiming guitars and stuttering drums.

The guitar playing throughout is superb, never flashy but always engineered to maintain perfect balance throughout the songs. On ‘All The Time’ the band coax warmth from the their instruments that envelopes you like a warm blanket of sound, finally reaching a gentle, shimmering crescendo.

What Sennen have achieved on this impressive debut is to create an album that is accessible without reigning in their instincts to experiment. At times the playing is beautifully restrained which allows the songs to build naturally and elevates them far above the ranks of mere melancholic shoe gazing wannabes. A welcome lesson in how to do epic guitar music from a band that hopefully has a bright future ahead of them.