Album
All We Are
Sunny Hills
June 9 2017 (Double Six/ Domino)
6.5/10
Words: Alison Mack
The second album from the Norwegian (Guro Gikling -vocals, bass), Brazilian (Luis Santos - guitars) and Irish (Richard O’Flynn - drums, vocals) three-piece contingent, based in Liverpool, was produced by Kwes (Solange, Kano, Loyle Carner) and combines indie rock, post-punk, R&B and a bit of this and that in between, with some deep, dark, but life affirming lyrics on this admitted 'political' album.
Opener ‘Burn It All Out’ - the first track written and the only one which has a title of more than one word - is a pumping, five-minute-plus extravaganza of pulsing beats and chiming synthpop grooves, while ‘Human’ closes up on it with a post-punk Savages impression, with Gikling's stark pronouncement, “I don’t even know what’s fake anymore.” Although there is less of the pop influences of their debut album. 'Dance' revels in a spacey catchiness and pulsing electronics and guitarist Luis Santos' off kilter riffs.
While 'Sunny Hills' may suffer something of 'difficult second album syndrome', it catches many of the qualties All We Are best exalt in - poetic writing and danceable, uplifting grooves, even if they may have failed to quite gel all the sonics into a cohesive unit.
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