Album Review: The Suncharms - "Distant Lights"

 

As you may be aware if you saw our Singles Bar the other week, this is an album that we were actually sent way back in January but it got lost in the shuffle in our review pile. Still, better late than never. Sheffield natives the Suncharms were originally active in the early '90s shoegaze scene and recently reformed with Distant Lights being their first proper album.

It's definitely an album that has the fingerprints of the early '90s all over it with the opening title track combining Mark Gardener style vocals with Teenage Fanclub style jangly guitars. It's nothing you won't have heard before (especially if you grew up in that era) but it at least contains enough tunefulness to draw you in while Dream of a Time Machine could be early Pale Saints if they'd been into the Byrds instead of My Bloody Valentine.

And thus it pretty much continues throughout - one part jangly indie, one part shoegazing distortion and one part gentle psychedelia. En route you'll hear echoes of everyone from the Charlatans (Precious Hour) through the Wedding Present (Jewels) to Spiritualized in their more mellow moments (Seas Of Titan, Lucifer). The Suncharms may not really be doing anything that hasn't been done before but Distant Lights is a difficult album to dislike - there's just something about the gentle hazy vibe on songs like Casting Shadows and Cast A Spell that makes it a perfect album for listening to on a slow warm summer evening with a drink in your hand. So yeah, perhaps they just got me at the right time of year but I ended up quite liking this - maybe that getting lost in the review pile here turned out to be a blessing in disguise for this album after all... 

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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