The opening hum of Girl For Sale’s gentle, synth driven single is a warm one. Like the first jumper of Autumn, ‘Like Me Like That’ is a sonic comfort blanket that welcomes you in, and closes the door behind to keep the heat in.
The moniker of songwriter Candice Cathers, ‘Girl For Sale’ has been a band name sketched in one of her millions of notepads for years, awaiting a chance to be a fully realised vision. In ‘Seaspeak’, her debut EP, Cathers has finally announced that the vision is a reality. As an opening chapter, ‘Like Me Like That’ reads like a Sally Rooney novel, our young protagonist hesitant to dip their toes back into the turbulent throes of love. We hear shades of Taylor Swifts ‘Evermore’ and some beautifully layered gang vocals courtesy of a roster of friends stretching ‘from Omagh, to Oregon’.
The detailed production flourishes from producer/engineer Gary White are all the better for their subtlety. Cathers captures the intimacy of her bedroom bathed in fading Summer light, while clearly signposting bigger things to come. If the rest of Seaspeak is as assured as this, there is no doubting that Girl For Sale will out last even the longest seasons, and be with us for years to come.
Taylor Johnson
