Sealand Airlines
s/t

Today we take a flight with Sealand Airlines, it is a Ukrainian thing led by a quartet of guys who wants to do something a little unexpected, I am not sure that the unexpected is what airline travellers want – but what do I know? It is a quartet that hides behind that name and they are probably not that much into air traffic but more into progressive rock and that sort of thing. The cover has a kind of a death star look, but with a more upbeat colour scheme than the one we have seen in some films. So, what about the music then?

The style of this quartet can be seen as progressive rock, with some touches of seventies styled rock as well as some touches of the more commercial styles like AOR and that kind of thing. Comparing them to band like Kansas or Genesis isn’t too far off, but you could also compare them with the likes of Toto or Chicago, so you see that they tick several boxes. They are quite catchy and have an air of nostalgia while still making an album that sounds pretty fresh and comes up with some unexpected things even though most of it feels quite familiar – you know where the inspirations come from, but they have put their own flavour to it.

If you are a kind of joker you might say that this album takes off pretty well, I think you only needs a few notes from the opening tune and you know that you are listening to a good album. The thing I don’t like that much is the vocalist, he doesn’t have a great voice but at the same time I am not sure that having a greater singer would improve the album as the kind of fuzzy way he sings suits their style pretty well and the album as a whole is stronger than the individual parts.

Sealand Airlines makes a really impressive debut album and an album that you can play over and over and realise that it is more than just a nostalgic collection of songs. It is an album that will have you discover more and more for each time you play it; this Ukrainian quartet deserves to be noticed as they make good and fresh rock music and isn’t the most common thing we get these days.

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