THE FRONT ROW

With Able Eyes, Sea Fever have officially flung open the doors to Surface Sound, their long-teased sophomore album, and what comes bursting through is a towering indie anthem carved from both coldwave synths and nostalgic fuzz. While previous singles from the record flirted with electronic flirtations and moody atmospherics, this one walks in like it owns the main stage, a storming, retro-futurist moment that plants its flag firmly in the festival fields of 2025.

From the off, Able Eyes drips with cool confidence. It’s urgent but not frantic. The band weave in Velvet Underground guitar jangle, Suicide’s twitchy synth menace, and the stadium-sized lift you’d expect from veterans of the Manchester scene. And that’s no exaggeration, with members drawn from New Order, Haven, Section 25, and Johnny Marr’s band, Sea Fever are practically the indie Avengers.

What’s refreshing here is the fusion of classic touchstones with sharp-eyed modernity. Iwan Gronow’s vocals manage to sound both detached and emotionally hooked in, walking a tightrope between 60s art rock detachment and 00s indie melancholy. His delivery on lines like “Kicking your heels, dissecting sums” is pure nostalgia shot through with growing pains – it’s cinematic without trying too hard, like a coming-of-age scene filmed under sodium streetlights.

Guitars fuzz and crackle over a pulsing beat that’s more basement sweatbox than Balearic sunset, keeping the band’s dancefloor DNA just beneath the surface. But this one’s made for singing, pint aloft, arm around your mate, shouting every word back at a band who’ve clearly earned their scars. The synth lines never swamp; instead, they flicker in and out like headlights on a rain-slick motorway, adding just enough tension to the track’s swagger.

Sonically, it’s a gear shift from the groove of Go To Ground and the shadowy noir of Loose Cut. And as a final tease before Surface Sound drops, it’s a confident statement: this is a band with layers, who can pull from clubland, post-punk and art-rock without sounding like a Spotify playlist in human form.

There’s weight behind the glamour, too. The band have crafted Able Eyes with the sort of precision you only get from players who’ve spent decades in the orbit of brilliance. Yet it still feels new, as if they’re chasing the thrill of the first rehearsal, not the comfort of the back catalogue.

With their album launch locked in for The Yard, Manchester, and a string of instores and festivals to follow, Sea Fever are building momentum the old-fashioned way, one track, one show, one believer at a time. Able Eyes is the moment that gives all those smaller moves a bigger purpose. It’s got style, stamina, and more than a hint that Surface Sound might just be the sleeper record of the summer.

FFO: New Order, White Lies, The Horrors
Playlist Tip: Slam this between Death by White Lies and Shadowplay by Joy Division.
Live Pick: Catch them live at The Yard, Manchester – May 30. Don’t blink.