Seum Premiere “Labrador” Video From New LP Parking Life
Montreal sludge rockers Seum release their third full-length, Parking Life, on April 23. Preorders are up through Black Throne Productions (LP) and Falling Apart Records (K7) now, and this week marks the arrival of the second single from the album, “Labrador,” for which a video featuring vocalist Gaspard, bassist Piotr and drummer Fred is premiering today below.
Parking Life has been billed, tongue firmly in cheek, as Seum ‘going pop.’ I have to think that humans who actually listen to pop music would be terrified by the opening title-track, or “Employee of the Month” or any of the quit-your-job-and-fuck-your-life fare on offer, be it “Labrador” or “666 Problems,” which brings in Vince Houde of Dopethrone for a pointedly nasty guest spot. But if you’ve followed the bass/drum trio at all over the last five or six years, you’ll likely notice Parking Life is their first outing to employ clean-sung vocals at all, and that only one of the eight tracks on the 26-minute album (yes, it’s short, but yes, it’s an album) is over four minutes long. On 2023’s Double Double (review here), just to compare, that number was four.
What you need to understand about it — this is true of the album across the board and certainly goes for the rousingly, encouragingly anticorporate “Labrador” too — is that Seum still don’t want for intensity. They brought plenty. The difference between Parking Life and Double Double or their 2021 debut, Winterized (review here), is that they let the listener in on more of the fun
they’ve surely been having the whole time, while also taking advantage of a chance to become more dynamic in how thye present their material. The fuzzy strut after the initial verses of “Parking Life,” the bassy sway and the swagger after the cough at 1:40 signals the switch to screams, is a telling moment for the record as a whole, and sure enough, “Parking Life” not only lays out the theme of middle-age descent into mediocrity, but also the character the band bring to the songs, which is that much richer for being multifaceted.
A litany of samples — jingling keys at the start, Steve Buscemi shows up later, etc. — join the band for what’s still on balance something of an onslaught but nonetheless refined in context. “Employee of the Month” is a full-weight shove at first and rounds off with a nod that feels like something Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol might roll out, leaving room for Houde‘s vocal in “666 Problems” (which is like “99 Problems,” but with more problems) to meet any quota for viciousness that might’ve been had going in. It is duly punishing. “Labrador” follows, and as the video and the single art above portray, the chorus, “Cut your tie/Bite your master/Break your leash like a bad labrador,” is a defining hook for the record as a whole. A phone call to the ‘Midlife Crisis Solutions Hotline,’ and thereby being put on hold, in the interlude “Solutions” leads into “Right Swipe Blues,” which is kind of tucked away but might be the most directly vocally melodic inclusion on balance.
I’d have to break out the charts to be sure, but the way the penultimate “Sad Labbath” backs it with the most aggressive uptempo force Parking Life has on offer tells me the assertion is correct, and as such, “Right Swipe Blues” comes across as the furthest delve Seum make here, though the closing “Always on My Mind” follows a not-dissimilar-if-more-brooding course, introducing the screams to top a slowdown/riffout. One might think of a band like California’s -(16)-, who in recent years have also made the jump to incorporating a cleaner singing style not previously employed. It doesn’t change the personality of what Seum do entirely, and it’s not trying to, but it does suit and serve these songs and it gives the band another tool at their disposal generally, which only makes them more deadly. Also, they’re right. Fuck work. Quit your job.
For a tutorial on breaking your leash, “Labrador” follows here. Please enjoy:
Seum, “Labrador” video premiere
Vinyl presales: https://blackthroneproductions.com/en-us/products/seum-parking-life
Tape presales: https://fallingapartrecords.bandcamp.com/
One take, one shot, no AI – bite your master.
2nd single of SEUM’s 3rd album “Parking Life” out on April 23rd 2026. Be there.
Directed by Florian Nermont in March 2026.
From the band:
“As we are reaching the middle of our lives, the temptation to settle down, forget our dreams and ambitions is high, this would be the safer choice!
Instead we decided ‘not to park here and doubled down on music by picking the Parking Life, travelling, playing shows for a hundred or one and exploring what doom’n bass music has to offer.
We also decided ‘not to park here’ musically by getting as far from our comfort zone as we could, adding clean vocals, melodies and treating each song of the album as a pop track.
We sing about loneliness, boredom, unfulfilling careers, addiction and broken hearts, topics all too common when you grow older, but we do it in a fun – no fucks given – way.”
Tracklisting:
1. Parking Life
2. Employee of the Month
3. 666 Problems (Feat. Vince Houde)
4. Labrador
5. Solutions
6. Right Swipe Blues
7. Sad Labbath
8. Always On My Mind
Yet another anthemic, and groovin’, release from SEUM
“Cut your tie!! Bite your master!!!” I already did!!