Label: Lucky Number
Released: 25th January 2019
Rating: ★★★★★
Hot on the heels of their second album, New Yorkers Sunflower Bean continue their purple patch with an effervescent quartet of tunes that highlight a band with bangers to spare. Title-track ‘King of the Dudes’ blends Julia Cumming’s husky vocals, Strokesian riffs and the pizazz of 80s glam rock in a cocktail of infectious pop-rock. Still in their early twenties, the depth and strength of Sunflower Bean’s repertoire belie their tender age.
The slick guitar solos on ‘Come for Me’ can’t quite disguise that the tune is an unashamed pop jam with a chorus that reaches for the sky. ‘Fear City’ somehow scales further heights, its hook towering over the instrumental skyline like an Empire State Building of infectious swagger. ‘The Big One’ offers a scuzzier punk tune to close the EP, but the lasting impression is of an artist with their eyes set on a starry horizon of earworm melodies and pump-up pop jams.
