Daryll-Ann Seaborn West

release year: 1995
Virgin's designer indie label, Hut, sets sail in hopes of partaking in the bounty and potential treaure of rock's New World, continental Europe. A Dutch quartet, Daryll-Ann will certainly spur further forays into the region with their Byrds-ish guitar figures, Neil Young-inflected vocals, and combination of tunefulness and tasteful, unaccented English Lyrics.

Unlike a crop of excellent Swedish guitar bands, Daryll-Ann eschews references to British Invasion pop, appealing primarily to late 60s American icons in their attempt to resuscitate melodic, country rock. Occasional pedal steel, basically never heard in the British isles, effectively makes this point.

Also ignoring de rigeur punk influences, songs generally stick to a loping mid-tempo, among the most rollicking of songs a fairly faithful cover of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain". Songs such as the opener, "Stay", steer directly into Neil Young/Buffalo Springfield territory, though they can't resist a Dinosaur Jr. guitar solo, punning on the oft-stated similarity between J Mascis' wah-wah pedalled excursions and Young.

Seaborne West is very coherent, sticking closely to this laid-back, slightly countrified sound while creating distinct melodies in each song. Distant cousins may include the Connells, latter-day Velvet Crush, and R.E.M. circa Out of Time, the slight twang exposing possible filial relations. Counting Crows might also enter a conversation about Daryll-Ann. The two bands certainly share the intention of revitalizing non-alternative rock, updating the folky late-60s and early-70s sounds of the American west coast as well as more recent heartland rock of Tom Petty and John Cougar Mellencamp.

Unlike the majority of low-key British bands (or British-fixated European bands), who usually come from a much more pop-oriented standpoint and therefore often fail to get the attention of the American public, Daryll- Ann generates tunefulness while solidly remaining in a rock format. In this way, originating in Holland has allowed them to follow their interests more freely than they would have been able to in either the self-infatuated and anti-American British music world, or the staunchly testosterone-dominated American alternative scene.