Album Review: Seth Sentry - This Was Tomorrow

While with music sometimes it's often best to play the ball and not the man (read: every rapper whose music you like but is a complete speedbump of a person), Seth Sentry puts his character front and centre of his work. To love Sentry's music is to love Sentry; to love Sentry is to love Sentry's music. Our host has made art and artist inextricable.

At times it's a joy. On Langoliers Banquet we hear, “Peace to you and yours/Grab a Cuban out the humidor”. It's genuine. We get an engaging song from an engaging person who wants to take us along for the ride. On My Scene Seth's greatest strength – making the complicated parts of character seem simple – is on show. The song is a straightforward identity piece about not fitting in, but the telling is what demands attention. Seth meets a bunch of yuppie types who mistake him for a colleague named Greg. Seth wants to fit in somewhere, to find his scene, so he thinks, “Maybe I could be Greg; just for the weekend.” That line says it all, and majestically; where other rappers would need a few verses, Seth needs nine words. Dear Science, a plea for the hoverboards first promised by Robert Zemeckis in the mid-1980s, is endearing.

This is a work that lives or dies on the content of Seth's character. A likeable videogame fan who sometimes struggles to fit in – yes – there's a lot to empathise with and enjoy. There are also moments when Seth's character repels rather than attracts. Opening track Campfire is a case in point. “I don't want to form an orderly line”, Seth Says. Nor work a day job “in a coma from the morning 'til five”. Simplistic complaints, and largely baseless, they serve to detract from the excellent person This Was Tomorrow introduces us to.