'Sea of Love' by The Californian

Walking down the street, do you ever notice that everyone heading in the opposite direction seems to be staring intently at you? When this happens, are you ever seized by the certainty that they can all read your mind?

The rational part of you knows that they're just gawking because you're dreadfully sexy, or because there's something dripping out of your nose, or because the beard you're trying to grow just isn't happening. But still, you become convinced that they all have supernatural mind-reading powers? And their fascination with you must be due to their knowledge of just how inane your thoughts are?

What's that? No? You've never had this concern? And you think that I've just revealed a dangerous degree of paranoia? You're sending large men armed with a straitjacket to take me away?

Well, I can truthfully say that I have not indulged in this admittedly bizarre fantasy for quite a while. I only bring it up because I recently realized something: if you had been reading my mind during the forty-eight hours after I first heard The Californian's Sea of Love EP, you would have found one thing and one thing only, repeated over and over:

"Na na na na na na

Na na na na na na na na na na

Na na na na na na

Na na na na na na na na na na...."

Et cetera. Ad infinitum.

This blistering orgy of na-ing comprises the climax of Sea of Love's first track, the ruthlessly catchy, aptly titled "NaNaNa". For a song to get as virulently stuck in my head as this one did, it usually has to be poppy in a vapid sort way, the result of dirty tricks passed down through generations of earwormers, going back as far as Tin Pan Alley. But "NaNaNa"--in spite of its classic nonsense title--is a pop song of substance, and it earns its catchiness. In keeping with The Californian's surf rock core, the song's exultant chorus is very much of the beach, but the verses evoke California's vast, lonely, dusty interior. It sounds a bit like two songs sewn together, but, then again, that's how California feels.

The EP then barrels headlong into "Sea of Love", a more traditionally surf-oriented number, which has a combustible momentum and charming, old-fashioned backing vocals. But it still retains a steady undercurrent of foreboding; I think it's telling that, rather than swimming or floating or washing your underarms, the song is about drowning in the title's "sea of love." The Californian never lets the sunniness of their influences wash out the gentle darkness of their vision.

This too-brief, achingly promising EP ends with "The Big Hell No" and "Spin Around", two tunes that showcase the acrobatic, dreamboat voice of singer John Graney. "The Big Hell No" dips but never wallows in longing and melancholy, giving the band a little room to show off its emotional range. And "Spin Around" ends the program on a stirring, upbeat note; it makes you want to take that last sip of beer, maybe take one more hit off that bowl, and hit the dance floor with your best guy or gal.

Which you can do on June 1st at Spaceland. And I recommend that you do so.

In advance of its release, Sea of Love is streaming here. If it leaves you cold at first, give it another chance. It'll sneak up on you. There will come a moment when you realize that you don't want to listen to anything else.