Albums by this artist

The Pace Is Glacial (1998)

Are You Driving Me Crazy? (1995)

The Problem With Me (1993)

Interviews

Still Driving You Crazy
March 22, 2000

Seam

Are You Driving Me Crazy?

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

Seam Are You Driving Me Crazy? Touch & Go, 1995 RiYL: Versus, Superchunk, Red House Painters, Codeine

After settling on no less than its third band lineup and churning out 1993's unforgettable The Problem With Me, Seam's membership took another spin through the revolving door prior to 1995's follow-up, Are You Driving Me Crazy? Chris Manfrin stepped in on drums, Reg Shrader took up the second guitar slot and William Shin (ex-Poem Rocket) assumed bass duties, replacing Lexi Mitchell, with whom frontman Sooyoung Park had been through a long relationship that apparently ended around the time of her departure from the group.

Whatever the impetus, there is an overwhelming aura of defeat and sadness hovering over Crazy. But while Park channeled his emotions through Problem's vigorous, thick rock, here, he seems more willing to vary the palette of expression. A solemn, violin-addled song like "Rainy Season" would have gotten lost under the roar of Problem, stripping Park's whispered longings right to the bone with lyrics like "I wanted you to show some feeling / I needed you to twist my arm." "Port Of Charleston" continues Seam's trend of including one song on every album that sounds like Codeine, but it's hard not to relate to what sounds like a tale of a breakup in progress: "I touched your lip to mine / tasted the love all dry / I'm sick of taking it, you know / But I can't walk away."

Luckily, scaling the sonics back a notch does not hinder the effectiveness of the songs on Crazy, which also benefit from Brad Wood's production, the clearest the band has yet received. Gems like the skipping "Hey Latasha" and "Two Is Enough" jump from low-key verses to crunching choruses, recalling the upbeat, hooky songcraft of bands like Versus. "Two Is Enough" also finds Seam upping its stock in the songwriting department, penning creative parts to augment the song's basic shell.

Crazy really is full of good songs, from the reverberating, chimy guitars of the rousing "Haole Redux" to the Smashing Pumpkins-soundalike "Broken Bones" and detuned, Superchunk-style guitar smear of closer "Petty Thievery." Both "Sometimes I Forget" and "Tuff Luck," two of the longer numbers, lose their focus slightly, but nevertheless hammer home Park's love-ravaged state-of-mind and the band's strong less-is-more inklings.

Although Are You Driving Me Crazy? lacks the true tension/release ecstasy of The Problem With Me, it still demonstrates a welcome maturity and ability to accurately describe the dark sides of love and relationships. Just in case you needed a reminder...

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"