The Hopeless Optimist
For most of the past year, I’ve been following a “Single Each Month” project by the Manchester, England pop artist Chris Gibson who writes and records as Seoul Metro.
I’m all for an idea like this — a writing challenge that seeks to create a finished work once a month — but for a musician to release a fully-formed song each month for a full year is considerably more work than me writing an article or story. It’s akin to writing a 12-chapter book a month at a time and then being ready to publish it at the end of the year. Yes, bands might spend a year recording a record for release, but when the artist is working solo in a completely within a DIY writing & recording setup, this kind of sustained work is remarkable.
Back in January, Gibson posted on Threads:
Things kicked off with the track “Anywhere” in January, a song Gibson had already completed and repurposed for this yearlong project.
Fortuitously, my own resolution was to attempt to listen to more new indie than established music in 2024. These two ideas came together when I ran across a post asking songwriters about their own favorite lyrics. Among the dozen or so responses was Seoul Metro’s “George walks in, ever the hopeful nihilist / He says ‘you know that all of this is a simulation, right?’ From my song Tomorrow (Are You The Same As Me?).”
A hopeful nihilist? I immediately looked up Seoul Metro on Apple Music and listened to the track. Infectuous and bouncy, it hooked me and quickly became my go-to for a quick mood lifter.
Fast-forward about 9 months and Gibson’s New Year’s Resolution has blossomed and borne delicious pop fruit ready for your listening enjoyment.
Over the course of these single releases, I have dipped in and interacted with them in various ways. “Tomorrow” continues to be my second-most played track of 2024, and will probably finish the year in that slot. June’s single “Forever” is also on my Top 100 of the Year, a testament to Gibson’s talent and ability to write catchy songs.
However, as the project developed and neared completion, Gibson switched gears a bit and wondered if he should finish the last few tracks and release the set as an album before year’s end? As a fan, I was absolutely in favor of this, given that the one-song-per-month cycle had worked consistently for nine consecutive months and that taking a step back to bring the project to a cohesive conclusion made morea artistic sense to me than the adherence to the calendar.
And this is what Seoul Metro has done. November 1 was the release date for the 13-track album Under the Same Sky. Clocking in at 43 minutes, it has the balanced feel of a major work from a focused artist. Rather than a collection of disparate songs, it works as an artistic statement greater than the sum of its parts.
While pop songs dominate music culture, there has been a strong undercurrent of pop-leaning albums that strive for more than just a chart run. Recently we have heard such work from Taylor Swift (The Torured Poets Department & Midnights), The Bleachers, Glass Animals, Billie Eilish and Lorde (especially Pure Heroine). Rather than breaking some experimental sonic ground, Under the Same Sky fits comfortably in the indie/alt pop space and relies on its musical gregariousness to sneak in its true strength — lyrics that engage in building a world of ideas and feelings that cause both emotional and intellectual reactions in the listener. Yes, you can enjoy the songs as interesting music, but they also reward those who pay attention to lyrics as well.
According to Gibson, the songs belong in a variety of genres:
- Frenetic indie (Dreamer, Tomorrow)
- Beautiful synthpop (Singapore)
- Soaring atmospheric rock (Home),
- Post-punk (Space Cadet)
- Introspective balladry (Atmosphere, Felix Felicis)
Gibson envisions each song as “a separate story, but inhabiting the same world.” This allows him to act as a narrator and tour guide, leading us to visit a bunch of characters who live, as the album title suggests, in the same world.
It’s interesting how much the work the songs work differently in different contexts. For example, each first of the month I would add Seoul Metro’s new song to a playlist and within the context of that playlist they would live with those other songs. To be honest they all held up on shuffle — they worked and I enjoyed listening to him throughout the year.
Still, when Gibson went back to create an intentional and cohesive sequence for the album release, the songs sort of take on a new life where they work with each other and interact at a deeper level. Rather than a dozen singles, this collection becomes a true album and stands up to 43 minutes of listening straight through.
The hopless optimist in me would have this album playing across multiple radio stations. In lyrics, melody, and overall sound, Under the Same Sky is as enjoyable as any pop-focused album released in 2024.
Seoul Metro’s Linktree
The album is available digitally on Bandcamp at https://seoulmetro.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-same-sky
It is also available on vinyl from https://elasticstage.com/seoulmetro-underthesamesky/releases/under-the-same-sky-album
