One Million Suburban Sunsets is the fourth album by Lincoln based indie-pop band It's Karma It's Cool who recorded at Playing Aloud Studio's in Lincoln with Martyn Bewick recording mixing and mastering the album. It's Karma It's Cool are Jim Styring, Martyn Beswick, Mikey Barraclough and Adam Jolivel-Perkins.
The album opens with the gentle guitars of Crashability that takes a sensitive look at how dangerous the times we live in are, the drums build while they ask how's your Crashability, well it's never been in more fear that a huge crash is coming down the line, not knowing where things will end in these troubled times, so let those guitars chime and sooth your angst.
The title song One Million Suburban Sunsets has good crunchy guitars help make clear how happy they would be to see One Million Suburban Sunsets and be around for over 2700 years, but they could just want one Million pictures from different suburbs around the world, in one gloriously diverse scrolling picture of the sun going down all over the world, this has a feeling of warmth and connection for everyone whose ever lived in the suburbs.
Swans is a rather cool calm tribute to one of the noisiest bands ever Swans, this has none of Micheal Gira and Jarboe's intensity, but that only makes this sound more heartfelt and perfect once the strings arrive, this should probably be played after Swans classic New Mind in some bizarre off the wall movie.
21st Century Meds all those odd pills and powders for the Adderall and Carfentanyl generation, downing pints of Huel this is lit, managing to sound like widescreen indie rock with a great rousing chorus for anyone hooked on 21st Century meds as I'm sure half the bands audience are.
Arcades are hopefully full of people and open businesses, rather than slot machines and despair, this has an upbeat rising riff philosophising about being in love again at another arcade, I see an old Victorian one with glass roof and delicate cake shop to sit and dream at, just as the guitars seem to go in and out of time like you've just dived through a portal into the world they want to create for Caroline who sadly they report checked out on new year's day.
Serotonin is just what they need a good shot of, to make live worth surviving, with another great catchy tune, that sounds like classic It's Karma it's Cool, with just enough twists to keep the drummer nice and busy through the time changes, perfect for another hit of dopamine, they want your brains awake to the empathy we need to make things better and fight the machine. Weightless feels like the comedown floaty outro, all the drugs are ebbing away and you're ready to just slip away.
These Heavy Days says enough in three words to resonate with everyone, does anyone not think we are living in Heavy Days, the sparse drumming stabs and wailing guitar against the main tune works to conjure up some of the suburban angst and general gloom at the core of the 2020's, a time when our abundant wealth and technology should make these happy times, yet somehow we've conspired to make These Heavy Days instead.
Sidewalk Flowers the sad reminder of some local horror or other, we've all seen them, with a small note you can't read for the victim, no amount of insistent cowbell or swirling guitars can quite bring succour to the people who place down those Sidewalk Flowers, that at best make everyone one else have a quick moment of wonder.
Paper Tigers has widescreen guitars, with some crunchy bits that work with the piano, Jim sings about the broken, who may have survived the flames of modern living, but are still struggling to make sense of everything around them, with the catchy glammy guitar lifting them up somewhat. It crashes into recent single Goliath before the opening salvo gives way to a slow thoughtful song of the sorrow of another relationship coming off the rails and how it feels to hit a concrete wall while they see Goliath fall.
The album closes with Explosions that has a slow strummed opening before first some small explosions of drums and guitar salvoes accompany the lyrics, of a world about to go boom, the central breakdown goes a wee bit proggy, before it builds back up with the backing vocals seemingly moving around the room a touch, always with a hint that things might just explode even when they don't.
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