Sunny Day Sets Fire - Summer Palace
Sunny Day Sets Fire is a new psych-pop quintet. Since the members hail from four different countries, there is a wide combination of personalities, backgrounds and musical influences, all having some impact on the music that is being created.
‘Summer Palace’ is the bands debut album and while it may be beautifully put together and very dreamy, it is a very subtle album where instrumentation and entertainment may not have been a main priority. There is very little power, raw magnetism, built momentum, bouncy rhythms or liveliness present in the duration of the CD so do not expect too much while listening. What you can expect from Sunny Day Sets Fire is some dark romanticism, in the catchy melodies of ‘Mandarine’ and some sun soaked melodies in ‘Teenagers Talking’. Many of the tracks have a sense of mystery; ‘Allow Songs’ with its pings of guitar, strings and orchestral setting. Then there is ‘Siamese’, which is quite choir-like with its short gentle piano; the excitement of ‘Wilderness’; the dark toned yet bouncy ‘End of the Road’ and the closing ‘Lack of View’ which groans, but never satisfies.
The vocals are very mellow, like on ‘I Dream Along’. On ‘Stranger’ there are two vocals present and at other times it switches between male and female vocals.
If you like some quiet time then this is probably going to rock your boat, but for someone who likes a little movement, some edginess and depth in their music, then this may sink a floating vessel.