Today, The Eighty Six Seas released their debut album Scenes From An Art Heist. An album inspired by the mass art theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, Scenes From An Art Heist is a record that defies the pigeon-holing of algorithms.
Throughout the album, brainchild of frontman Nick Stevens paints a sonic landscape full of indie rock, dance, folk, EDM, and country influences. For fans of Frightened Rabbit or The National, The Eighty Six Seas frontman Nick Stevens’ silky smooth, yet melancholy vocals will be right up your alley.
On Scenes From An Art Heist, each track contains a fictionalized yet unique story inspired by the infamous heist, making the album a true sonic wonder. Some of these stories include a scorned loved one stealing a piece of art that he and his ex partner bonded over in attempts to reconcile. While other stories strike a more emotional nerve, like that of a dying father who’s fallen out of touch with his daughter and decides to steal a painting they both enjoyed to prove his love. Altogether, the new album explores a number of interpersonal dynamics and analyzes the psychology behind committing a crime as drastic as stealing a piece of art.
Recorded with collaborators David Knox, Chris Anthony, and Dave Anthony, Scenes From An Art Heist came to fruition at The Record Co, with finishing touches being executed in Nick Stevens of The Eighty Six Seas’ Brooklyn apartment.
“The idea for this album came about when I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston for the first time in 2015. The Museum was the site of the largest art heist in history, and to this day the frames that housed the stolen artwork hang on the walls as a reminder of what was lost. The first time I saw the room where most of the artwork was stolen, I had a visceral reaction to the absence of the pieces. It was eerie and spooky. I remember thinking:
Pour one out for the frames that still hang on the walls at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Imagine waking up one morning, thrown carelessly on the floor, with something beautiful torn out of you. Now you have to act normal, and hang on the wall, but you know that you’ve had something beautiful torn out of you and everyone can see it. You know there are others out there like you, but you can’t see them.”
Will you be checking this one out?
