Some Bodies - Sunscreen Vinyl LP New 2019
1. Tired All the Time
2. TV Show
3. Silver Screen
4. Higher Self
5. My Name (With Madness)
6. Sunshine
7. Escape
8. Pushing Daisies
9. Ain't over Yet
10. Last Song (Déjà Vu)
An adventure island surrounded by waves of nostalgia and built on a foundation of blissful, retrocentric rock, Some Bodies shape a world over the course of ten impeccably produced pop nuggets that's distorted yet inviting, told from the point of view of a band looking back at their youth.
The melancholy nature of 'Sunscreen' bares all the markings of a half-forgotten summer of freedom before life happens and we're forced to look at the world without the rose-tinted glasses of adolescence. As such it's both unforgettable in its melodies and delicately playful, but boasts some hefty modern subject matters such as virtue signalling, climate change, dead-end jobs, celebrity, religion, shame, social media and mental health.
"There are a lot of questions and no answers on this album" we're told by guitarist and lead songwriter Fred Hickey, "It's fairly soul searching. Personally I was just shedding all the disguises of my early twenties and writing about them. It sounds like someone giving themselves a good talking to to me. The "grand conceptual idea" Tom and I would keep coming back to when we're talking about the lyrics and imagery was this "shit holiday resort desert island". We were just laughing at all of these characters being cooked by global warming surrounded by an ocean of plastic. But I guess we were those characters and making this record is all we had to protect ourselves from getting cooked. Hence "Sunscreen".
The album pulls in sounds from every corner of rock history, from the dulcet lo-fi harmonies of The Beach Boys and Sparklehorse to the contemporary psychedelic leanings of Tame Impala and Beach House. Opener 'Tired All The Time' recalls lazy, hazy afternoons before the poignant 'TV Show' hits harder with an aggressive krautrock riff and smoky delivery.
Elsewhere album highlights like 'Higher Self' and 'Sunshine' revel in their unabashed love for The Beatles, and if these tracks serve to lead you on a journey through the bands surreal fictional funfair then 'Escape' plays the role of haunted house, with its dark edge, jagged guitars and sinister garage-rock rhythm. Towards the end on 'Aint Over Yet' we're given a healthy slice of Pixies charm, without cutting too close to the bone.
Recorded by Stew Jackson at the legendary Rockfield Studios, the LP offers gloriously crafted indie-pop that at times feels vintage in its presentation but Some Bodies have taken everything they know from these timeless eras and twisted them into something quite unique. In a similar fashion to bands like Foxygen or The Lemon Twigs, their music aptly reflects this generation's sentimentality for the past and for escapism.