''Cannibal Sea'' is the third album by

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

The Essex Green The Essex Green is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn that has released four albums to date. The band is primarily composed of songwriters Jeff Baron, Sasha Bell and Chris Ziter, and specializes in a classic sound inspired by 1960s–197 ...

. It was released in March 2006 by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expand ...

Background

Essex Green formed in 1997 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. A part of

The Elephant Six Collective The Elephant 6 Recording Company is a loosely defined musical collective from the United States. Notable bands associated with the collective include The Apples in Stereo, Beulah (band), Beulah, Circulatory System (band), Circulatory System, Elf ...

, they released an EP and their debut album on

Kindercore Records Kindercore Vinyl was a vinyl record pressing plant based in Athens, Georgia. It began as an independent record label, founded in 1996 in music, 1996 by Ryan Lewis and Daniel Geller to help create a unified Music of Athens, Georgia, music scene of ...

, followed by a second album, The Long Goodbye on

in 2003. Cannibal Sea was recorded in a number of studios, including producer Britt Meyers home studio, and released in April 2006. The cover artwork was designed by Maggie Fost.

Critical response

Critical reaction to the album was mixed to positive. It currently holds a 78% rating, based on 16 critics' reviews, on the review aggregator site

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Of these, 13 are "positive", whilst 3 are considered "mixed." There are no "negative" reviews of the album. Most positive reviews praise the album for its innovative approach to pop, while criticisms include the fact that it is a bit "mellow," "familiar," and "empty."

Track listing

''All tracks written by The Essex Green.''

Personnel

The following people contributed to Cannibal Sea. *Chris Ziter – vocals, guitar *Sasha Bell – vocals, keyboards *Jeff Baron – guitar *Brent Arnold – performer *Kevin Barker – performer *Britt Meyers – producer, performer

References

The Essex Green albums 2006 albums Merge Records albums {{2000s-indie-pop-album-stub