We Could Leave Tonight
It’s been almost a decade since the last album by Sydney shoegaze band Sounds Like Sunset. The wait has been worth it, writes ANDREW P STREET
Sounds Like Sunset’s debut 2001 album Saturdays is a lost Australian classic. It was one of the last releases on Modular before it shifted focus from shoegazey guitars to the far more audience-friendly electronica of The Presets and Cut Copy, and it had the further bad luck of coming out when the label was transitioning from EMI to Universal. It’s never been reissued and copies now change hands for upwards of $100.
Someone has my copy, and that person is a bastard.
There was also a second album, Invisible*, that snuck out on the ill-fated Architecture label in 2005, which is also magnificent. And aside from a few gigs every so often, that’s been it for the Sydney combo. Until this year, when suddenly we get *We Could Leave Tonight.
?There’s not a dud on the album.?
It is, predictably, magnificent. It also sounds much like it could have come out six months after Invisible: the line ups may have varied, but singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Challinor worked out his sound early on in the piece and by god, he’s stuck to it.
Fortunately, that sound is glorious. Challinor’s dreamy, breathy voice and deeply treated guitars make a mighty wall of Ride/MBV/Lush noise, with overdriven lead lines that J Mascis would be proud of, all anchored by Tobey Doctor’s unshakably solid drumming and David Hobson’s unobtrusive bass.
There’s not a dud on the album from the second Challinor asks, ?Don’t suppose you wanna tell me/What’s been playing on your mind? on the opening ?Second Chance? – an opener on par with Saturdays? magnificent ?Each Time You Smile? – through to the layered harmonies insisting ?You could find your way back home? ahead of arcing waves of feedback on the closing ?Find Your Way?. The stop-start ?Somebody Like You? is a mini-epic, and ?Maybe Eye? is currently playing over the end credits of perfect coming-of-age indie movies in a far better universe to this one.
?Every song is awash in layers of guitars.?
Every song is awash in layers of guitars, chugging away on ?Sunshine? and last year’s minor-key single ?Fear?, which makes more sense in the middle of the record. However, my favourite is the second-to-last song, the stop-start strummer ?Undone?: ?You come back, it’s not too late,? Challinor sighs over acoustic chords. ?I’ll forget what a mess we made.?
The only complaint is that, at nine songs, it’s criminally short. That’s a mere song per year since Invisible. Oh, and while we’re here: could someone set up a Kickstarter to get the first two albums re-released on vinyl? I think the world is finally ready.
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