After countless 10 out of 10’s from Radio Stations across the land, and comparisons to more than a few incomparable bands (The Kinks and The Beach Boys for starters) you would be cruel to ignore a track record as perfect as the West London quartet’s. Sadly for the average achievers among us, the best do usually start off the best. However, now it’s debut album time, the A level exam or 100 metre final if you must – show time!

            It is obvious straight away that there is a hybrid of genre’s with folk headlining, giving the odd chance to a bit of rock and pop along the way. The first track named ‘Dress Me up in Bruises’ gets us going. We’re immediately presented with a happy-go-lucky ‘make-the-most-of-it’ kind of band, picking up the acoustic and only thinking about ‘life-offal’ when it’s spurring on the lyric pen. Folk is an underrated genre, assumed to be ye olde link arms, wear dungarees and grow your hair to your socks twaddle… and why not? But this opening track (along with the rest of the album) encapsulates everything that folk really is; simplicity, yet substance.

            ‘This City’ continues the melodic approach, and doesn’t let you down, offering all you already die hard Et Tu Bruce fans a way in to the album. A classically British example of folk pop rock, metaphors like ‘not my cup of tea’ will – whilst increasing the ‘we heart tea’ stereotype – warm everybody’s cockles.  ‘Never Seen You Cry’ maintains the high standard, with Vocalist Jamie White whipping out his surprisingly masculine Cockney voice before the intro, and then joining in with the whole band (Matthew O’Toole – Guitar/Vocals, Darryn Bruce – Bass and his brother Craig Bruce on Drums) to create a Beatle like harmony, only puzzling the listener with the millisecond long Ray Winstone to John Lennon transformation. However, White and O’Toole return for Never Say Trevor, the forthcoming single, and the track that makes Suburban Sunshine worth listening too. The simplicity is blatant, but what an amazing use of rhythm, of calculated musical nous, of expertise – a perfect track which strips down the barriers of music, and shines it in its most natural light: naked music if you like. Well, the nice kind of naked. ‘Stars Fall’ concludes the singles on the album, and is yet again perfectly melodic, re-writing the folk book, a personal favourite of Frank Skinner I believe, a folk pro. And what better reviewer is there?

This album is an album for the Singles, ‘The Turning of the Screw’, ‘Memories Remain’ and ‘Miracle Crash’ take the back seat. Songs that people will listen to, but forget. The same goes for’ I Keep Forgetting’ (irony not intended) and ‘It’s All Nothing’, the last two tracks, of which the album would have been fine without. However this is nothing more than a glitch, and there had to be one, the 10 out of 10 drops to an 8 for me, but it’s still a great album, and one from a band that we’ll surely hear more from.

C.Sellings