Martin Saint’s Seekers is a moody, atmospheric odyssey that feels like a love letter to the post-punk era, filtered through a deeply personal and modern lens. Echoes of The Psychedelic Furs, Killing Joke, and even the cinematic new wave melancholy of The The resonate through this album. But Saint, who used to lead the vocals and rhythm guitar in The Ember Glows, never falls in the replicaiton territory. He instead channels these influences into something distinctively his own — noir-tinged, poetic, and steeped in existentialism. Basically, there’s a literary quality to Saint’s songwriting — less about hooks, more about atmosphere and mood.
Still, it is hard to seperate Saint’s older post punk crooner vocals, reminisicent of someone like Peter Murphy, and many of these tracks, like the lustful single “Look at Me That Way” or the 12-string guitar led “In The Dark,” feel like they’re from a different era, when goth-tinged vinyl dominated. The same can be said with the reverb-drenched “Waiting For The Moon,” a very cinematic, darkened pagan groove. You’ve gotta love the bright guitar solo during the driving bridge, too. The synthy feline ode “One Hundred Dreams Deep,” recalls The Cure’s Disintegration era.
Seeker’s co-production duty between Saint and Frank Bones strikes a fine balance between lo-fi intimacy and lush, layered soundscapes, aided by collaborators including Delphine Dupont, Julie Abel, Hugo Joyal (The Mirrors), and Ursa Minor. Seekers is an album for the wandering souls — a sometimes haunting, thoughtful addition to the canon of cold romantic post-punk outsiders.
