Blue Friday: Looking For Sparks

I've been wondering for a while how to feature this song. It doesn't quite merit Clandestine Classic status, it's too short for a Monday long song and too long for a Sunday short. Guess it'll have to be a Blue Friday post then...

Thematically, it's in the right ball park, at least. A song about being dumped, and more specifically being at the stage where you'd say or do anything to get the other person to take you back. You know, the raw stage, before you ultimately resign yourself to cultivating a healthy dislike for the person instead. Either that, or you just meet someone new/better... but the raw stage makes for a better song.

I don't know anything about Seafruit. Nor does Wikipedia, although allmusic.com has this somewhat anodyne biog:

After spending four years with a band called the Wild Orchids, Geoff Barradale (vocals) formed Seafruit in 1998 with Alan Smyth (guitars, strings, synth, piano), Joe Newman (synth, organ, bass, flugelhorn, sitar), Stuart Doughty (drums, percussion), and Tom Hogg. Although the Wild Orchids never landed a record deal, Seafruit were able to sign with an independent label, Global Warming Records, within a year of their existence. By February 1999, Seafruit had completed recording its debut album, which wasn't released until more than a year later. Seafruit's first single, "Looking for Sparks," was released in the U.K. in March 1999. The guitar-heavy track marked a stylistic departure for Barradale, who had a fling with chart success as the frontman for the '80s synth-pop outfit Vitamin Z. Seafruit performed at U.K. music festivals and opened for Drugstore and Headswim while releasing singles such as "Hello World" that hinted at the album's melodic guitar rock. However, none of the singles attracted significant radio airplay. Seafruit also filmed a video for "Hello World," but its appearance on the Internet provided it with far more exposure than television did. When Seafruit's self-titled first album was released in October 2000, minimal promotion killed any opportunity of commercial success.

Whatever. I think I got this track from a Q magazine subscriber CD, way back when. It makes me think of Embrace when they were having a good day, at least in the verses if not the chorus. It's quite easy on the ear, and has a pleasant enough video too, although I'm not sure about the whole "playing our invisible instruments" thing for the band - there's a bit where the guitarist is playing a solo on his invisible guitar where it looks like he could be playing with something else instead. But that's enough lowering of the tone - here's the song.