This was needed. Sunfactors previous 3 recorded tracks have been strewn over various formats and are pretty much played out. The sound on those songs pales in comparison to the live performance, and there are a whole bunch of new songs too. So, at last, a year down the line, we have 5 totally brand new songs to listen to often, at least until the Carver split comes out.
Of the songs here, 3 are favourites of mine from the live set. Opening up is “Midnight” which has a great driving riff to open with and some splendid backing vocals. Fantastic emo rock, it’s got all the qualities that great songs of this style should have. “Smalltown” has just the best intro going, it’s grooving as fuck and I love to dance to it. Vocally it reminds me of Mid Carson July in places. The bassline just makes this song. “Sal Paradise” is dreamy and slower and has a nice flowing bass and lots of twinkly guitars gently persuading the song a long, then it gets more rocking. “Palmer 5” has another beautifully constructed intro that gets the twinkle on totally with a slow buildup into a noisier chorus with cracking vocals, before sliding back down into the twinkle. Everything ends on a flying emo rock note with the blasting “Little Rocks Everywhere”, a torrent of guitars spiral all around in the first few seconds before things settle into a more midpaced outing. Probably my least favourite of the 5 tracks, but it still rocks like a “mutha”.
Right, I do love this CDEP, but I have one minor problem. It is the fact that I can compare each song to a different band and there are some huge similarities.
- “Midnight” – the body shaking riff and the backing vocals are Spy versus Spy all over
- “Small Town” – not many comparisons to be made here, I’ll let this one off :o)
- “Sal Paradise” – I’m sorry, but that bassline is unflinchingly reminiscent of Promise Rings “Forget Me”, I should know, I’ve listened to that song 932432432432 times
- “Palmer 5” – the only song which Sunfactor have that sounds remotely like Christie Front Drive. Admittedly, if I was in an emo indie band, all my songs would sound *exactly* like CFD, but hey
- “Little Rocks Everywhere” – I can almost hear Garrett sing “This town was built on miles of hope and I dare you to give me on reason to stay and maybe I won’t go away”
It is frightening that they share characteristics with each of these bands, but then again, the songs are awesome, and they do flow and sound like they’ve been recorded by a singular group. So I guess it’s up to you, no band going at the minute can play the emo rock style as well as Sunfactor, but they do lean heavily on numerous influences. Thank god they are good influences.