SUNFLOWER BEAN FIND THEIR SOUND ON MORTAL PRIMETIME
Sunflower Bean Mortal Primetime
Mortal Primetime is Sunflower Bean in their musical prime, an album that we’re lucky to be hearing because it almost never came to fruition. Over the course of their career the members have created art together by taking life’s challenges, pain, pleasure, love and everything in between and delivering those emotions wrapped up into beautiful songs on beautiful albums. Breaking onto the scene as teenagers creating music wise beyond their years with albums like Human Ceremony, Twentytwo in Blue and of course Headful of Sugar.
The bands return was not an easy one, Mortal Primetime is without question the bands most personal and vulnerable yet. But in the years following the release of Headful of Sugar, life happened, the friendships drifted as new projects arose and personal circumstances set in. The band who made their mark on the New York City music scene lost guitarist Nick Kivlen to the warm sun of California, Vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming was forced to begin her songwriting journey by herself for the first time while dealing with separating from a long time partner which had a profound impact on her songwriting. With all that the band’s drummer Olive Faber came out as Trans and created Stars Revenge, a new project to dive into.
The group of friends who’ve had years of incredible success, touring with massive acts like Beck, The Pixies and sharing the stage in front of thousands at festivals like Lollapalooza now found themselves distant and unaware of who they were outside of Sunflower Bean. Cumming says “Every long-term relationship experiences challenges. You either stop or you go deeper. What is a band but a relationship with a body of work?”
Going deeper is exactly what they did, the band’s drummer Faber says “We make good music together, how could we walk away from that?” Little did they know the band was about to make some of their best, most important music yet. Sunflower Bean met in Los Angeles and chose to self-produce Mortal Primetime, a bold, rare and special process for a band to create the vibe and energy they share as a unit onstage and carry it into the recording studio making for a raw and pure sounding record. Mission accomplished!!!
Photo by Anna Nazarova
Mortal Primetime is an album filled with emotion, exploiting feelings of revenge, love, friendship, loneliness but it’s their story told viewed through their most honest lens. The band get even further from fitting into a musical box on the record through the albums 10 tracks there is no clear genre on Mortal Primetime and that may be what makes it so special the band drew from influences ranging from 60’s ballads to Iggy Pop, folk and even it’s own version of a pop song and they do so at their absolute best.
The album’s first single “Champagne Taste” is a grungy, 90’s distorted guitar driven kick in the face that leads into second single “Nothing Romantic” with its gothic pop style hook “There’s nothing romantic in being alone I don’t want to be the last lonely soul sitting at the bar drinking alone, waiting for god to take me home when the devil said heaven was closed”. With a roaring guitar solo before the song ends on an almost acapella note in which Julia Cumming’s voice is angelic.
“I Knew Love” is a total style change but a welcomed one, the track serves as a love letter honoring and cherishing the memory of feeling that emotion in the deepest depth of the heart, Julia’s vocals are absolutely shining bright through the entire song. “Waiting for the rain” is a 60’s style sentiment of growing up and changing friendships that come along with it. The song’s emotion is one so relatable about keeping those relationships and grasping to the friendships even as life takes individuals down different paths. “Shooting star” is a song that’s equally beautiful and sad as Cummings finds herself questioning her heart’s value to another and her worthiness of being on the receiving end of love. Again her vocals are just absolutely shining and the song’s ability to evoke true, deep feelings couldn’t be more successful.
“Please Rewind” starts with folk style guitars as Nick Kivlen’s vocals carry the midwestern vibe throughout. “Look What You’ve Done To Me” is once again carried by the vocals of Julia with lyrics like “I want a love so hard it chokes me” as the beginning line the song is etched with passion, and on “There’s A Part I Can’t Get Back” Cummings get brutally honest about her pain with lyrics like “You Stole it From Me there’s a bag I can’t unpack” speaking directly about her experience with grooming.
Mortal Primetime allows you to feel the band’s transition and it’s in the contrast and the stylistic differences that it finds its cohesiveness. It’s an album that if you listen to the tracks individually it’s seemingly chaotic but together is a beautiful symphony of emotions coming together. The album stands for strength, love, friendship, honesty and growth, Sunflower Bean have discovered their undefined sound and shed the musical boundaries they may have once felt pressure to be confined too. In my opinion it’s their greatest work of art to date.
Mortal Primetime is a 9.5/10 (Release Date 4/25/2025)
Sunflower Bean will be doing a special release day performance and signing at Rough Trade in New York City on Friday April 25th tickets are available HERE!
The band will also be hitting the road in May, for a full list of Sunflower Bean Tour Dates visit the band’s website HERE.
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