Seventeen Evergreen - Haven't Been Yourself

Being based in a house between a Deaf Old People’s Home and an Alcoholics Anonymous building is bound to make for interesting – and possibly quite disturbing – living. This is, very literally, where San Francisco’s Seventeen Evergeen are coming from. Coupled with the fact that their debut album is entitled ‘Life Embarrasses Me On Planet Earth’, it seems likely the duo (real names Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans) have taken a fair amount of inspiration from their surroundings.

Debut single ‘Haven’t Been Yourself’ seems to confirm this theory. Based on a real neighbour, they convey a schizophrenic mind through a lush, pastoral soundscape that reflects the haunting nature of the subject matter. Divided into distinct sections to echo the different sides of the personality, it opens with slow but heavy drums which combine with the moody backing and abstract questioning of “I bet you / Have been to / Warm places / Cold places too” to create a feeling of atmospheric confusion. In contrast, the ‘verse’ part is one of introspection, with the significant “Haven’t been yourself lately…” sung in a different tone over a different rhythm. The eerie assault of the ‘chorus’ slowly fades out to a sea of calm and the song wanders into a meandering middle. Though ‘Haven’t Been Yourself’ disappears abruptly at the end, the oddly disturbing tone of the song means it leaves behind a kind of aural scent and rather impressively you can almost still feel the song hanging in the air after it has finished.

There are obvious Pavement comparisons to make due to Seventeen Evergreen’s lo-fi strangeness, but when this single is listened to alongside the more beat-heavy b-side ‘Superbus’, the most recent touchstone is probably Secret Machines. ‘Haven’t Been Yourself’ is an original, very well constructed song that is more affecting than you might realise on first listen. It does, however, sound more like a lost part of a whole rather than a standalone single. This bodes well for the forthcoming album but means the song just misses out on real distinction.

And check the video out. Like the bearded lady on the cover of the CD it is very strange indeed.

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First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.