Seth Sentry’s a rare artist whose records make it feel like you’re best friends with him. Getting blazed, playing Xbox and complaining about work are Sentry’s bread and butter. The thematic focus of his second LP Strange New Past ranges from the mundane everyday to truly personal issues, but it’s never at arms length; we’re all in this together.
Strange New Past is a mature successor to Sentry’s 2012 debut This Was Tomorrow, where each successful element is taken to the next level. For instance, no longer does Sentry only have a miniscule bag of weed; in Hell Boy he’s “puffing pentagrams/ and getting brimstoned”. It’s not just a juvenile boast – over the top of a walking double bass riff, this is Sentry’s way of showing us he’s finally gotten to a point of success. Although he still acts like a 19 year old, in Run, Sentry physically longs for the heady rush of adolescence. Hitting 30 after his last album, it’s clear that the Melbourne native is struggling to find his place in the adult world. Using his 20-something bachelor pad rooftop as a metaphor for his refusal to grow up, in Rooftop he wonders, “When I will come down?” It may not seem like deep subject matter, but for anyone struggling to find their place, it hits close to home.
On the early-album track Dumb, Sentry suggests he may not be the intellectual he thought he was. But the back end of the album more than proves this hypothesis wrong. The naivety that had him pining after cafe waitresses in his earlier work is replaced by wiser and more reflective subject matter. In Violin, Sentry pours out his heart and soul for his absentee mother. It’s an album highlight that epitomises the changes Sentry has gone through during his journey to success. With his trademark cheek finally applied to something other than shying away from responsibility, Strange New Past is a huge step forward for Seth Sentry.
BY JONTY SIMMONS
