The Battle of Land and Sea The Battle of Land and Sea WB rating out of 100

“Whoa. It’s over already. Thirty minutes…gone. Just like that. Where did it go?”

That is the likely initial reaction to the first hearing of The Battle of Land and Sea by the US duo of the same name – ‘What the hell just happened?’ The music washes over, without leaving so much as a fingerprint on the pristine glass of human memory. It’s weightless, insubstantial and wander it does, to the cricket, recent gigs, the hot neighbour in 3A, the Mid-East peace process, anywhere but The Battle of Land and Sea, as though the human brain is hard-wired to avoid alighting on something so slight lest it collapse and lead the mind to some abyssal prison where Vespertine is considered hard rock.

On second listen: “Hmmmmm” is about as passionate a response as could be elicited by a repeat performance.

The Battle of Land and Sea, comprising Sarah O’Shura on vocals and finger-picking duties, and Joshua Canny doing the rest (the rest not extending far beyond occasional flourishes of reverb-drenched electric guitar and some banjo), moved to Portland from Silverlake, California after recording this debut album. The easy, unwound ethos of remote seaside towns is pasted all over The Battle of Land and Sea, from O’Shura’s airy vocals to the somnambulant tempos and prevailing sense of lethargy.

This is not to say that The Battle of Land and Sea lacks good songs. There is certainly the potential for many across its total running time, but probably only one feels like it isn’t being played by a campfire with almost no second takes. ‘Six Days’ is a wistful, woozy number, which actually utilizes handclaps to set a rhythm from the get-go. And it’s this sense of rhythm that lends the strummed guitar and atmospheric electric swoops a sense of purpose that is sorely missing across much of the remaining record.

In the particular version of iTunes that exists in the computer on which this was typed, immediately following the closing track ‘You Are a Sailor’ comes ‘Race: In’ by Battles (a sequence that is, no doubt, replicated on many computers that contain those two albums), and despite the vast gulf between the two groups in terms of, well, everything, the disparity demonstrated everything lacking on The Battle of Land and Sea. The mere sound of a drum kit being hit by sticks was enough to arouse an almost sexual excitement after 32 minutes of the most unobtrusive folk imaginable.

Mirrored is engaging, challenging, and genuinely thrilling for almost every second of its nine tracks. The Battle of Land and Sea is none of these things. Bad, it most certainly is not, but Sarah O’Shura and Joshua Canny need to learn that being gentle and musing works best when the songwriting is what shines through. What shines through here is that The Battle of Land and Sea is gentle and musing. Unobtrusive, sparsely instrumented music can be, and has been, among the best music ever made (think Nick Drake’s Pink Moon), but to succeed, the song itself must be immaculate. It comes down to rhythm and melody. Relying on a pretty voice and interesting atmospherics simply isn’t enough. Otherwise it all washes over the listener, without registering any kind of imprint.