There are few bands I love more than Seahaven, and a few Seahaven songs that can top their tune “PV (Pura Vida)”. It’s the best song the band has ever written musically, and lyrically, it draws you in and makes you stay. Kyle Soto’s versatile vocal abilities are shown off, making it strong and powerful. It’s addictive and unlike any other song of theirs.
The opening line is, “‘Goodnight son,’ was all he said, it was routine and simple. I played it out inside my head until I was ghastly feeble.” The passion in his voice is chilling and it eases into, “Mourning came with the morning rain, hit the rooftop with the stern disdain.” This intensely poetic imagery is just the beginning of the gorgeous nearly six-minute track that’s the greatest ever produced by the quartet.
As for the chorus, the first time I heard it, I realised that this band was more than they appear and they’re meant to be taken seriously. “All they had to do was speak my name, to calm the lion, make him tame. Were you as wild as they say? It’s what they say- But I don’t really know what to believe, because if I really was so crippling, did you have the heart to complete the cliche?” The way he vocalises “as wild as they say” is so intriguing and forces the listener to be drawn in and have that line of melody stuck in their heads.
In music, there’s a rare but extremely dazzling quality that some vocalists possess that in certain words or lines, the voice has the ability to stop you in your tracks and have a simply primal attraction to the perfection of the art. That’s the bridge of this song. “Their love makes up for a lot that has been lost, so I guess it’s not as aphotic as I thought. I’ll meet you in Costa Rica. Open my eyes, Pura Vida.” When he sings this, it has a bit of a psuedo-Spanish accent that is so perfect and addictive, and gives this song an edge.
I can’t get enough of this tune. It’s the greatest the group’s written, and is worth a listen.
