“The Shores”
from the EP Testing the Waters
2010
iTunes
Formed in San Diego, The Sea of Cortez began to gain attention after their song “Mystified” was featured in a Billabong surfing video. They released an EP in 2007, and a year later decided to move to Los Angeles to build their own studio and begin recording a full-length album. The resulting 13-song LP, Make It Sound, was mixed by Jay Pellicci in San Francisco and is scheduled to be released this year. Already released, however, is the album’s single, “The Shores.”
“The Shores” is an exploratory 6:09 song that sees the band change pace multiple times, their emotions seemingly tossed about by the whims of the sea. It starts slow and simple with a low frequency that starts to percolate with instrumental inklings before giving way to lead man Christian Thomas singing “Testing the waters from the shore” as more traditional drum and bass lines start to surface. The song then accelerates significantly, the pace quickening and Thomas’ voice turning from longing and passive to more spirited and optimistic. This wave of energy quickly subsides and the song slowly washes in with nothing but simple acoustic guitar and Thomas singing “Floating out here, floating out here on my own” over and over again like the tide repeatedly washing over the sand. The song ends with a one line resolution being deposited on the shore: “I’ll keep on drifting, making my way to the shore.”