Sonnymoon's 'The Courage Of Present Times' Is Unorthodox & Frustrating

Boston duo Sonnymoon continue their genre-defying musical journey with the release of their third EP - the loose and unorthodox 'The Courage of Present Times'.

As an album it’s all over the place, making The Courage… an interesting but occasionally frustrating listen.

Opening number ‘Blue’ is a slow burning soulful number, with its choruses morphing the quietly verbose verses into heavy-hitting thirty second blocks reminiscent of Sylvan Esso. This links into second track ‘SNS’; a great pop song with a complex drum-machine beat running nicely behind some intricate synths and Anna Wise’s note-perfect vocals.

From here however the album slips into a bit of a loop-induced slump. Short tracks with no real structure populate the main body of The Courage… and it’s not until eighth track ‘The Only Face’ that you can really appreciate the talent that both band members have. Flashes of the musicianship honed at the infamous Berklee College come back in bursts, which is enough to make the album exciting but not propel it to the level of brilliance, which it so often hints it could reach.

There are some gems on Sonnymoon’s new LP, but to often it stumbles between tracks with no real structure. Given multi-instrumentalist Dane Orr’s clear abilities and Wise’s flawless singing (featured on both of Kendrick Lamar’s albums) Sonnymoon are definitely a band to keep listening to. You’ll just have to hope that their next album carries more consistency than 'The Courage of Present Times'.

To find out more about Sonnymoon
click here. To visit the Sonnymoon Facebook page
click here. Words by Luke Forshaw

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