New Music Friday 5/6/22: Sunflower Bean, Elephante

Steven McCash reviews new Sunflower Bean and Elephante on this week's New Music Friday!

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Sunflower Bean              Headful of Sugar

The usually mellow New York rock trio Sunflower Bean find themselves screaming while searching for freedom in a world full of corporate greed on their latest release, Headful of Sugar. Previous releases found the group feeling a youthful helplessness and Headful of Sugar finds the trio shook by the fact they are coming of age during a volatile time in the world.

Sunflower Bean dipped into their bag of influences on the new record. The Gorillaz inspired “In Flight” is a romantic tale of meeting a new lover and taking off together to enter a dangerous and exciting new world. Lead singers Nick Kivlen and Julia Cumming share duties on the song as the sing about their search for like-minded people to share new experiences with.

“I Don’t Have Control Sometimes” borrows from The Cure and finds Julia exploring New York not concerned about what tomorrow brings. Cumming sings, “I don’t care what tomorrow thinks, today I’m totally mine” over off-the-wall melodies. The singer recently said in a statement when asked about the song and its theme, “I’ve always thought that my reckless side was both a gift and a curse, leading me to my best choices on stage but my worst choices in life. I don’t have control sometimes is admission, acceptance, and almost celebration of the parts of yourself that are impulsive or maybe even insane.”

Album opener and standout “Who Put You Up To This?” is about letting go of a former lover and saying farewell to your former self. The soft, whispery pop song about a toxic relationship also forces the protagonist to take a look inside to see if they too were a cause of the chaos in the partnership.

The world looks completely different than it did when the band released their critically acclaimed sophomore album Twentytwo In Blue in 2018. Sunflower Bean was frozen in fear about the future on that album, but just four years later find themselves empowered, more resilient and not as helpless. Headful of Sugar is an album fueled by their ongoing maturity and is one that begs the listener to hop in the car and listen to while driving with the windows down and the volume cranked high. @Sunflower_Bean

Elephante featuring Sabai           “Love Again”

Multifaceted artist Elephante has teamed up with producer SABAI to release his new genre-bending single “Love Again.” Elephante says the song is “about recovering from a broken heart and all of the trauma that comes with it. It’s about climbing out of the darkness and putting yourself out there despite the fear of getting hurt again.”

“Love Again” is the first new music from Elephante since his hotly-anticipated album Heavy Glow. The DJ and singer has no problem asking for a hand to help him get up and move on after suffering heartbreak, singing, “I don’t remember how to get back off the ground, so could you lend me a hand?”

Heavy Glow, with a dozen-plus tracks, marked a milestone as his first full-length studio album, a largely solo effort featuring more of his own writing, vocals, and production. Pushing the sonic needle on hybrid dance music through indie-and alt-rock influences, it thematically explores the roller coaster of fame, the depression and isolation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Asian-American experience.

The Harvard graduate is currently in the midst of a headlining U.S. tour and information can be found at elephantemusic.com. @iamtheELEPHANTE

Steven McCash is the Lead Music Writer and Utility Man for SoBros Network. Steven is the host of the ‘Drinking With…’ podcast, and the pioneer of New Music Friday, highlighting each week’s new releases in the world of music in addition to the occasional live show review. He also pitches in as a Nashville lifestyle writer and football analyst (hence the ‘Utility Man’ title). Follow on Twitter: @MC_Cash75

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