Seely
Julie Only

THE REVIEW

For Seely, it went something like this.
They met at the architecture faculty in Atlanta, formed the group, and in 1996 released an album for a label in their city, Third Eye Records by a certain Ted Selke.

Shortly after, the London label Too Pure came into play, which at the time was releasing some of the most interesting emerging post rock around. They signed them on and wanted to release the album also across the pond.
Then there were disputes, failed agreements, our Ted Selke wouldn't let go.
And so the whole group, along with John McEntire, was sent to re-record the entire album from scratch.
The title changes, the cover changes, the track layout changes, but the titles remain and Julie Only finally sees the light.

It's a rather strange album, packed with guitar effects, almost a catalog of pedals, but it almost never ventures into the wall typical of shoegaze.
Rather, despite the short tracks (only 3 or 4 out of 14 exceed 5 minutes), with vocals present and highlighted in the mix (although not exactly convincing), complete with choruses, the post rock label holds. Especially in tracks like Wind & Would, whose intro could easily pass for a track from those bands in the wake of various Explosions in the Sky and similar.
Special mention for the drums, highlighted more compared to the first recording; with different sounds in some tracks and a taste never predictable. There are some highlighted odd times and a sensitive and thoughtful use of dynamics. Additionally, some deliberately truncated harmonic loops give what, in my opinion, is the overall feeling of the album, a continuous expectation of something that doesn’t arrive.
We're just below an hour's duration, and in the tracks, there are many ideas, but they are almost never developed to reach any conclusion. Only towards the end one finds more substantial and structured tracks, but by then, the mind is full and tired.
An album that retraces the exploratory intention of that '90s post rock scene from Stereolab to Tortoise; but in this case, it makes, if not a journey in vain, a turn in a not exactly interesting direction.

Was it worth recording all this twice?