mvm.

Designed to be played loud with the windows down, this is Sunflower Bean. A spectrum of feeling and flavour and… as life walks over us – this is us getting over it.

Swimming into a pool full of coffee shop alternative pickings and misfit playlists, “It’s ALT-good!”, you could argue that the surfy, wishy-washy scene of alternative indie is saturated enough already. But when it comes to the likes of these candid collectives of ethereal delight, nothing says saturated when music remains well, music. Like many before them, the psychedelic headrush that they harness through their music is, for a better word, addictive.

Navigating the agony and ecstasy of contemporary American life, Sunflower Bean have been the too-cool-for-school soundtrack for the misfit Urban Outfitters of New York, if only I could feel so free awash with sleek synth-pop as they muse at the prospect of being “a living, breathing ad for Saint Laurent.”

A concoction broiled from the virtuous of Wolf Alice and the frenetic of Sports Team, the trio of New Yorkers are hailed as true specialists of the departure lounge and department changing rooms soundtrack to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. A Headful of Sugar is exactly that. A backdrop to the sweet scent – and evidential overdosing – with Moment In The Sun to Who Put You Up To This? (If only I could feel so free/To call you now would be a breeze/So tell me when you feel the need/We’re letting go for real/In another life I was a bitch).

Writing with their hearts well on the sleeve, the extent of the third studio album has been palatable compared to that of prior release, Twentytwo In Blue from 2018, and its poignant stand-out Moment In The Sun has catapulted the band to sunset heights, charting a place further afield on festival line-ups aswell as making their mark in the alternative scene.