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Reviewed by Harry Kaplan
This is a really, really nice release. Good writing, singing, and harmonies. Sunlost is Daniel Hutchison – vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar and Brian Potts-electric guitar, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, harmonica, and vocals. They hail from Collinsville, IL, which is a suburb of St. Louis. Coincidentally, Collinsville is about ten miles from the home of Uncle Tupelo and maybe 20 miles from where The Bottlerockets reside. Some of the Rocket/Tupelo magic has rubbed off on these fellas.
Certainly, Sunlost has been influenced by Uncle Tupelo. Just listen to Oakland Hat (Track 5), and you can hear the spirits of Tweedy and Farrar coming through. The writing, music, and singing has a very strong Uncle Tupelo watermark on it. Sunlost has taken the good bits and parlayed that into a fine song and a fine album. The song is simplistic, which adds value. Simple is not a bad thing. Something doesn’t have to be complex to be beautiful and catchy.
If you like your country a little quirky, then you will be fond of Expectations (Track 2). This song is a little more on the Neil Young spectrum than Tupelo, but there is certainly a very strong connection between all three. Another song that is not very complex as far as song composition is concerned. It sounds like a classic country song that has been mixed with a tab of “Alice In Wonderland”. An extremely infectious song with great lyrics. There is also a stellar lead guitar solo that takes this song on a magic carpet ride.
I really like magical moments and You Took My Heart (Track 7) created quite a few. The song is gorgeous in its simplicity. It really could be mistaken for a Neil Young song, which is an extreme compliment. This is a very sad song about a young lover dying before her time and her survivor singing pained lyrics. This song gets the maximum amount of emotion possible.
I am extremely impressed with this album Misery. Not everything that comes my way will make it to review. This came to me unsolicited and it was so doggone good, I just had to review it. This needs to be shared with everyone. Give these boys some love and pre-order this gem of an album.
Pre Order Misery on Bandcamp