Sullen Eyes - Hardwood Floors and A Hand to Hold
$10.00 - $25.00
Sullen Eyes - Hardwood Floors and A Hand to Hold
$10.00 - $25.00
Full-length album available on 12" vinyl with lyrics sheet & CD
Also available via Bandcamp
Bandcamp
Side A
Intro Jangle
Getting There
How It Should Be
Take Our Time
Side B
You and I
Never Mine
Lessons Learned
Thinking About You
Charms Around Your Wrist * bonus track
Great jangle pop: many try to create it, few even come close.
Maine’s Sullen Eyes don’t beat around the bush when they open with the slyly titled, “Intro Jangle,” it’s as if they’re letting us know - we can do this.
Their instantly familiar sound is the epitome of ‘uncluttered’ - guitar, bass and drums coil around Jules Steer beautifully unadorned vocals. Just catch that Smithsian chord at the start of “How it Should Be” heralding two and a half minutes of majestic autumnal jangle.
Elsewhere there’s some scratchy Scottish Postcard-pop DNA in “You and I” as well as maybe a remnant of the long lost majesty of nineties indie poppers Downy Mildew or even the crazily underrated 28th Day.
Expanded from the original 2021 EP length digital release, thankfully Sunday Records have done the right thing and now give us CD and vinyl, rescuing these songs from getting lost in the ether.
Having grown from a bare bones three piece to a richer fivesome, Sullen Eyes don’t hide their influences, named as they are after a song from Sarah Records legends the Sea Urchins. But the thing is, they don’t need to, nine short and sweet melancholy tangles of sound are delivered each of which could have pride of place on the brilliant 2020 Captured Tracks, Strum and Thrum compilation.
Still for all the period references there’s a purity and a confidence at the heart of Sullen Eyes’ music that leaves them floating strangely adrift from time and place. These are memorable songs in their own right and have no need to fear allegations of plagiarism or pastiche, rare jewels out there in the wilderness.
When you hear, you will know, Hardwood Floors and a Hand to Hold is plain and simply; lovely.
Simon Heavisides
