Sunset: The Glowing City
By John Michael Cassetta • Jul 9th, 2008 • Category: Album Review, Music
I have an interview up today over at Austin Sound with Bill Baird that you should check out. It was conducted via Google Chat, which means it’s a little confusing and 100% ridiculous, but who wants to do interviews at Spider House anyway. I’m still working on a Flash version that will depict more accurately the timing of the entire thing. More to come.
In other news, the new Sunset album The Glowing City (which we posted tracks from last month) is due out next week on Autobus.
I don’t think I can stress to you enough how good this album is. From start to finish (a grand total of about 18 songs), it clamors with the oddities of Bill Baird, but is considerably more pop-oriented (and accessible to the average listener) than Sunset’s earlier release this year, Bright Blue Dream. Leading off the album, “Zombies” sets the tone for what is to come, crafting a patchwork percussion rhythm dressed up with pianos and vocal chants (”Zombies… Zombies”) while Baird’s near-whisper vocals churn up some oddly optimistic lyrics: “Dance, like Sandy said / if your heart isn’t dancing you might as well be dead” (well, optimistic at least given the context - a song called ‘Zombies’). The glow of Bright Blue Dream finds its way into some of the lyrical references too, such as “Your life is a sitcom staring you / with candle-lit television eyes.” The jury is still out on whether or not this is a direct reference to your mom telling you that watching to much tv will turn you into a Zombie, but maybe you can piece together the clues in that interview I told you about.













