The Sunpilots

King Of The Sugarcoated Tongues

Written by: PP on 15/09/2012 03:25:18

The Sunpilots are originally an Australian band that got fed up with the ridiculous distances involved when touring the continent, so they moved to Europe to be closer to their primary audiences prior to the release of their sophomore album "King Of The Sugarcoated Tongues". It's an eight chapter story about the human need for security and the freedoms we are willing to trade in return, told over an intriguing musical format that mixes together the magnificient soundscapes of Muse and the intricate, story-telling oriented introverted indie rock of Say Anything on one album.

So from that description, you might expect the band to delve into complex soundscapes that occasionally overwhelm the songs with huge clean vocal work and massive riffs, and elsewhere tone things down to a minimally complex, yet quirky indie rock mixture. That's absolutely right - and oftentimes it happens within the same song. "Chapter 1: King Of The Sugarcoated Tongues" is a great example, where Max Bemis' up-then-down style vocal influence is channeled through a more progressive, yet organically flowing song that wants to be even more than it is, a trait omnipresent throughout the album. This is a record that really wants to sound big, and on many tracks succeeds in doing so, especially when the vocalist does his best Matthew Bellamy impressions. But it also makes space for experimental indie rock flavor, which means it avoids sounding like the stadion rock band that songs like "Chapter II: The Captain" otherwise make it out to be, suggesting there's more depth to be found in the songs than is immediately audible.

As such, you might be most suited to call "King Of The Sugarcoated Tongues" a progressive rock album, even though it strays away from every single boring stereotype attached to that genre. It's essentially exactly what I made it out to be before, a mixture between Muse's Matthew Bellamy's excellent vocals, that don't quite reach his original heights but instead dwell on the more indie rock flavored format of Say Anything's Max Bemis overall. It's an intriguing mix that shouldn't work on paper, but does so exceptionally on this album.

Download: Chapter 1: King Of The Sugarcoated Tongues, Chapter II: The Captain,
For the fans of: Say Anything, Muse,
Listen: Facebook

Release date 27.04.2012
Honeytrap / Rough Trade

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