Sunny Day Sets Fire - Summer Palace Review
Posted by Jesse Coy on 07.22.2008
Looking for another good ’08 summer release? Just in time for July’s heat comes this band’s offering, Summer Palace. Is it fire or ice?
Sunny Day Sets Fire Summer Palace
July 2008
IAM Sound Records
Some artists like to be compared with other artists and some don’t. As a reviewer, I need a handle in my mind. I have to figure out where a release is coming from, and why I do or don’t like it. I heard an advance sampling of a song from Sunny Day Sets Fire last month, and listening to it, I thought, this is very interesting. The track was “Hollywood,” part of a cluster of songs on the second half of this release that blows me away. Excellent stuff… but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Publicity folks at a label know you need to set on paper or in a press release some kind of listing, be it vague or more specific, of just what the band is about. For Sunny Day Sets Fire, they kind of went with a beach rock meets modern eclectic psychedelic grab bag. The Beach Boys are thrown out as one “in the vein of” band (I can maybe see Brian Wilson specifically, his quirky masterpiece, Hello), as are the Flaming Lips (I know of the band, but being a big David Bowie fan, when I heard the cover of “Life on Mars” that the Flaming Lips did… awful cover).
I’d throw out a whole other set of bands that Sunny Day Sets Fire… not reminds me of (because I think they have a unique sound going for them), but rather are in the vein of. I’d actually think more of glam rock like David Bowie, Brian Eno, Hedwig, or also some tracks especially toward the end of Summer Palace have the same kind of fun as the New York Dolls’ “Trash” and “Pills.” Here, it’s “Adrenaline” and “Brainless.” There was also Spacehog in the 90’s. Tying Spacehog and Bowie together, you have a space theme that to me reverberates throughout Summer Palace.
There aren’t any tracks on this release that I don’t like. But considering how great tracks 9-13 are, the opening of this release isn’t as memorable. It’s good… it sort of relaxes you into the water. The first really great standout track hits via the fourth song, “End of the Road,” with its infectious, dark spacey pop riff. I hate to even say “pop.” I don’t think that’s the right word. It’s followed by “All Our Songs,” starting simple and quiet, but building to full, epic dimensions.
I don’t do track-by-track analysis too often. So I’m going to move on to the cluster of tracks I mentioned earlier… 9-13. I can almost extract them and let them stand as one of the best EP’s I’ve ever heard. I know, it’s not an EP. They’re part of an LP proper, but bear with me. “Adrenaline” begins this track grouping, and I was trying to isolate what it was that I loved so much about this one. I’m assuming Onyee does lead vocals on this. She’s a Hong Kong native, while vocalist and guitarist Maruo is originally from Italy, plus you have other members from Canada and England.
Anyway, “Adrenaline” sounds so much like a quirky 80’s underground hit. It’s finger snapping, synth popping, mildly sarcastic fun. It’s followed by “Hollywood,” which wavers between dreamy acoustic and the dark underbelly of a lead-in and main refrain. “Brainless,” the third in the cluster, has as a backbone some catchy acoustic work and an accompanying tuba (if I’m getting my horned instruments right). It almost sounds Beatles-esque, but then turns Beck-esque. And finally, there’s “Map of the World,” with a return to (I’m assuming) Onyee on vocals, starting bippity-boppity-like, only to open up into a rock-charged travel tune.
There’s a lot of traveling going on in Summer Palace, as a matter of fact. Here’s an impressive release by a band that takes you somewhere, or perhaps represents an alien looking into our world, seeing it in very different colors than the rest of us see it.
The 411: I’ll reiterate that if you like Bowie, Hedwig, Brian Eno, or Spacehog, or any other artists with a sort of quirky, spacey, glam rock feel to them, you’ll like Sunny Day Sets Fire. And if they are akin to those acts, there’s nothing copied. I’m quite impressed by this guys… can’t find many flaws.
