JONATHAN SEET Arousal Disasters (Aporia) Rating: NNNN
Jonathan Seet arouses the Rivoli Sunday (March 23).
Rating: NNNN
Something about the unsettlingly creepy cabaret pop on Arousal Disasters, Jonathan Seet’s second disc, evokes Barbara Gowdy’s necrophilia love story We So Seldom Look On Love — all dripping wet and darkly gorgeous. Think luxuriant synth-orchestral pop ballads that are, paradoxically, both massive and claustrophobic in scope. Think Nick Cave, but not as tough, or Sarah Slean if she’d grown up listening to New Order. Seet’s voice is a breathy choirboy warble that sends him clambering to stand beside folks like Thom Yorke and Chris Martin, but there’s a more sinister edge. Seet sounds like the type who’d jump you in a back alley, but he’d only want to read you goth poetry.
