Originally holding the image of three scruffy looking Americans making noisy, shouty rock music, the release of their second album, Twentytwo in Blue, now makes it impossible not to picture a laid back, melancholy indie group with strong social views, gliding their way to the festival stages this summer.
By Emily Stephens
Three piece, New York based band, Sunflower Bean have released their second album since their debut with Human Ceremony in 2016.
Listening to Twentytwo In Blue for the first time, I feel as though I am raiding my mother's CD and Vinyl collection, listening to musical legends such as Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths and The Black Keys. A lot of things are also running through my mind, like where has their original sound gone? Why is there so much reference to other songs published by their predecessors? Are they just trying to create something that will get them booked for festivals?
Throughout the album, front woman, Julia Cummings, gives off a heavy Stevie Nicks vibe, while many songs on the album appear to be a younger sibling of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. It seems as though the band wanted to make sure that they paid homage to all of their inspirations and founders of similar genres to them, in an age where relaxed, easy listening music is being left behind.
You can see such a progression in the band since their first album, Human Ceremony, and it seems as though, during their time supporting Wolf Alice on tour towards the end of 2017, Sunflower Bean have taken a step back and studied the detailed structure of a song rather than just how to make a noise. Now, we get an album rich with layers and layers of different vocals and instruments, coming together to make a smooth sounding, melodic track.
Cummings displays outstanding empathy along with a moving feminist narrative throughout the album, making it a real anthem of a generation when we are at a time where we are surrounded by social issues such as sexual harassment with #MeToo, gun violence, xenophobia, Trump’s American dystopia, racism and hate crimes. She emulates confidence within her vocals, making the impact ten times more powerful, so much so, that Twentytwo was included in Spotify’s Women of Indie playlist for International Women’s Day.
It isn’t hard to imagine the album playing in a car while on a road trip in the summer, with it’s whimsical guitar solos and upbeat, indie-pop rhythm. Bearing this in mind, we should anticipate seeing Sunflower Bean be set to play at festivals in the very near future.
4/5
You can listen to the album below:
You can listen to the album below:
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