Sean Burke | As You Were

Family Average: 4.6/7

Hello hello, Family Review Readers! This past weekend the family was all reunited yet again as Meghan is on vacation from her home in Chile. We took full advantage and surfed some waves and reviewed some albums for you. This artist happened to fit along quite nicely with the whole surfing weekend vibe actually. Yes sir we reviewed a Long Island native, Los Angeles inhabitant, vegan food eating, barefoot jammer named Sean Burke in his breakout album.

Listen along on Sean's Spotify as you check out what we had to say:

I liked this one, had some depth. Bassy towards the beginning, in a goood way. Kevin yells at me when I say "jazzy" cus I’m not educated enough to use it correctly but this felt jazzy to me hehe. 

Definitely an older feel to it with some modern and beachy influences. Liked the orchestra of instruments he used, especially all the distortion. I genuinely want to download this album and listen to it again, it's right up my alley and what i’ve been craving.

5.5/7

The first time I listened to this, I was noshing an impressive spread of snacks in the Maldjians' kitchen, so I was obviously distracted. However, listening to it a second time, I was surprised by how much I liked it. It's a short but sweet first release that's got a sort of gliding and buoyant sound. Nothing about this album is gonna bring you down; it floats and emanates that whole surf-rock beach aesthetic, which I can totally get behind.

That being said, it's totally vanilla -- nobody's gonna kick up too much of a fuss if you put this on. But hey, I like vanilla.

4.5/7

I think Sean Burke was going for a surf music thing, similar to Dick Dale and the Venturers, which I love.

S.B has a lot of talent, his sound definitely had some highlights. Overall, however, the album seemed more like a work in progress than a finished piece. I have seen this before from kids in my art classes back in school. Unbridled talent and wonderful ideas, but for some reason a lack of execution. They can’t seem to get on paper or tape exactly the ideas in their heads. This was like that. Still, I get what he is going for and can often fill in the blanks.

“Blue Flame” was my favorite track. The rest fell a little short. I could not help thinking, "If only they had put more time into this composition, this could be something really really special". 

I am hopeful for S.B. in the future. Tons of great potential; when he finds more structure and discipline I think we can expect some great music.

A very hopeful 4/7

Sean Burke oh wow! A familiar face in the lineup. My review will inadvertantly come off biased because I’ve seen Sean play around Montauk with Annie and visited him when he was with Flotel in Philly. And also we're friends haha.

But I like the sounds that he’s going for here. Lots of surfy and groovy feels. A nice album to throw on and just sort of lose yourself for a minute or two. I especially like “Take One” for the music and “As Long As” for the lyrics.

5/7

This album has managed to combine both the strengths and weaknesses of an auto-produced, homemade album. In terms of strengths, I really liked that there was a freedom in the musicality that actually led to some really cool melodies and arrangements that really positively surprised me. Especially the song “Blue Flame”, which I thought was really cool and original. And props to him for playing all the instruments (I think), he played pretty solid throughout the album.

The weaknesses were already pointed out by other people here. Mainly the lack of focus in the songs, which sometimes go in a lot of different directions, without much control. But that’s why people get producers I guess. That also transpired in some of the instrumental parts which were unnecessarily complicated, which added confusion instead of helping the song. But I’ve been there too, and all of these defaults can be tackled by just more time in the studio, working with other musicians, and producers and stuff. Overall I’m pretty impressed and I think there’s a lot of potential.

4.5/7

I think overall it is a safe bet, throw this guy on and everybody will have a good time. And while I was having a good time listening to this album, I found myself constantly trying to get a handle on what exactly was going on.

When I listen to an album produced under a single person’s name I want to get a vibe of who they are. It was just a little difficult behind all those other instruments. I have heard from Kate that it is cool to see him live play with just a guitar, and I think I would like that a lot more.

4/7