Review Summary: Great chill music for sunsets at the beach
So I read the first line of Sonny and The Sunsets’ biography on their Myspace the other day, and in regards to the outfit’s sound, it gave me a few comparisons to
The Raincoats,
Michael Hurley, and
Jonathan Richman – in that order. While this is, you know, all fine and good, I really have little clue who that group and those guys are, like at all (sorry), and to save me the trouble of having to do a
last fm search, as so many bands just
love to make me do these days, the leader of the San Francisco-based group, Sonny Smith, should have just spelled it out for me in layman’s terms.
Like, looking back after having listened to
Tomorrow is Alright, this “
acclaimed singer / songwriter, playwright, author & one-time troubadour pianoman” could have just made it easy and thrown into the space for the group’s story a
Beach Boys-esque band name-drop, half-time-wound tempo speeds, with a fetish for an acoustic guitar – or rather, beach-pop music taper-made for the sunset hours of 6 to 8 in the evening, on the sand with the ocean waves. It’s not that hard. There's no need to get fancy with the comparisons, dude.
Because, essentially, that’s wholly what
Tomorrow is Alright is, and, well, that’s just alright with me. Occasionally some laid-back, pretense-less music is what I need, what we
all need, especially to balance out and caress the measly amount of minutes that we may have between the hard-bound 2,000+ page-college text book study sessions that come so often with our new semesters: we need a
breather, not a psych-fest, not a death metal pounding,
just happy, stress-free-music. Well, what do you know? Thank you, Mr. Smith – here it is:
Tomorrow is Alright.
And it helps, too, that this playwright guy writes songs that aren’t too hard to decipher by our tired brains; in the context of the stripped, often naked music of Sonny and The Sunsets' combined crafting, Smith’s words hit just the
right spot, unobtrusive and wholly welcoming. Of course some lovely vocal melodies buffer the overall beach feel along the way, too, not so strong that I would sing along the next time listening through
Tomorrow is Alright, but just enough to where I wouldn’t get lost amongst the songs as they played through the speakers. This is a
key point, and a variety of song contents help things even more:
“Love Among Social Animals” has this lovely duet; whereas “Lovin’ on an Older Gal” has a talk-an-response session amongst Smith and his band mates; whereas “Planet of Women” (Lord help us, right?) is primarily drum and bass guitar-led, with a woman occasionally speaking with Smith as he sings. So, yeah,
Tomorrow is Alright is quite a diverse album, full of nit-knacks to discover (though these are immediately evident); but it always faithfully retains that same
mood, the same laid-back and “
just chill from the books, man” reprieve from reality that I often need, and that you probably need occasionally, too.
Sonny and The Sunsets even have a way of writing and recording songs that have me coming as close to the genre of country music as I’ll go to get without needing to make a quick exit (!): “Stranded” and “Bad Vibes & Evil Thoughts” have such an influence; and it’s in the suaveness with which Smith handles everything that makes these songs pleasurable, despite their origins, keeping the beach-bum feel concentrated at the center, while ever so carefully brushing up against the country genre with a delicate touch.
I scream; you scream; we all scream for “Death Cream” – okay, just kidding, but it is arguably the best track here. Smith handles and wields his melody with something you might hear in a
The Olivia Tremor Control pop number – that is, light-hearted, smooth, and in a 60s fashion material, all the while resting on a beat and a downward guitar strum that will make you want to gently nod your head, instead of actually sing the words.
But it is in this case, however, that I am led to my only complaint with
Tomorrow is Alright, slightly touched on earlier: the music is made suitable to chill to, certainly, but in the end the album has little else to bring you back for more.
Tomorrow is Alright is cute, at times slow, and very inoffensive, but it’s a little
too slippery for its own good. This really sucks, too, because this is obviously a reason why Smith and his gang are so enjoyable as well. It’s at the band’s very core sound, and when you make music for the beach – or the fans of Richman, Hurley, or
The Raincoats – you’re going to be limited to that setting, almost trapped on the sand, in the sun, with little where else to turn.
Tomorrow is Alright seems to be solely designed as an ocean-shore inhabitants' bar, nothing else. It places you in a position where you must choose it, being trapped in the care-free beach with the rest of the bums, or keeping your nose in the books like you usually do. Personally, I know which one I would pick, without a doubt. You'd be a fool not to do the same.
