Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When waiting for an album to come out by a band that you know deep down could have been the talk of the town and the greater music world in any of the decades since Liverpool gave birth to popular music culture in Britain, caution can seep in. It can mess with expectancy, it can gnaw at the promise you have made to yourself that it surely must be good because the gigs and the songs have suggested nothing but a wonderful sense of timing and delivery. Caution is good, it keeps both the listener and musicians grounded but it can also feed on you like a Succubus caught in the middle of a midday snack asking for extra bread rolls.
Caution should be thrown out of the window at high speed when it comes to the Sundowners full length eponymous debut, for the emotion of the album, the sincerity of abundance and crafted beauty kick caution out of the house with relish.
Like many young bands in Liverpool, there is an enormity to live up to, a pedestal so high that to think of it at times is enough to make you giddy, both with excitement and honour but also in terms that can be negative, destructive and harmful to the creative process. It’s hard enough living up to the omnipresent thought of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, without adding the likes of Ian McNabb, Pete Wylie, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Zutons, The Coral, The Lightening Seeds, Ian Prowse and Space to the list of greats coming out of the area. It’s enough to put the thought of future gloom into a young emerging artist of just how they live up to these figures parading the minds of the people of Liverpool.
There is always room for the 21st Century equivalents though and in the Sundowners that room is made with sweeping pleasure. The performances of the band, especially Niamh Rowe and Fiona Skelly, are to be admired and congratulated, the vibe of the West Coast, the sanguine refection and modern urgency are all in place and the overall sound is, not to die for, but to live happily alongside.
Tracks such as the opening song, Wild As The Season, Who We Are, the sublime If Wisher Were Horses, the gratefully received Hummingbird and the charming Desert Rose, all make the Sundowners first foray into the full length release something of a wonder.
Like other young bands fighting for space in Liverpool, the more they get heard, the more the wider world will understand that the city by the mighty Mersey River didn’t just start and end with The Beatles, that the desire to inflame the senses of the music lover seeps out of every brick house throughout Merseyside. The Sundowners have placed down their lot and opened up their souls in this album and what a wondrous sight it is to behold.
Ian D. Hall