The new year is definitely shining bright for Brisbane, Australia's heavy-hitters, Sunsets. Carrying the torch for aspiring easycore acts in the scene today, Sunsets is a band that will hook listeners in with an essential easycore sound jam-packed with heavy-hitting chords and songs that will make you want to scream loud and clear with your friends during a late-night drive. Upbeat and catchy, their new EP Make It Happen is a promising album that stays true to the ideas of living life to the fullest and holding on to the friends and memories that have shaped you.
Ripping away into the album is the song Locals Only. The song shreds away into full force immediately with a fast-paced Wonder Years-esque tempo that clashes with an explosive breakdown pattern less than the halfway mark of the song. As this bone-crushing breakdown gives listeners the sudden urge to spontaneously jump around and break out some windmills in your living room, the tempo changes abruptly back to its lightning-quick drum-fill as the lead singer Casey Ford invites listeners back into the song with a harmonizing vocal tone that could be comparable to the simplistic vocal styling of Matt Wilson from Set Your Goals. This first is track definitely an easycore fan's delight that packs a punch.
If listening to this album for the first time, you can tell from the get-go that a song with a title called Vibe City is definitely a Summer song. Proving to become a potential anthem for your upcoming Summer soundtrack, Ford is screaming out the one thing that's on our minds every year as we all hit up the beach and bathe in the sun in this chorus, "Let's hope this Summer never ends".
Raging forward is the single Elsewhere Bound. Most traditional pop punk bands provide listeners with the urgency to discover yourself and to move forward in life with your head up looking high at the clouds. Conveying a rally cry to avoid inadequacy and defeat, Elsewhere Bound is an inviting and upbeat track that inherits a message to live your life to the fullest by never settling for the things in life that will hold you back. This is a song that you should keep in the back of your mind the next time you are looking for another late-night song to help you feel alive.
A deep cut like It Ain't Easy Bein' Hebezy is a fist-pumping track that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Brace yourself for impact as the introduction into the breakdown of this track set things off with a silly phrase, "Click-click-boom!". Along with Elsewhere Bound, this is a song that definitely defines the true essence of the traditional easycore sound from start to finish. This song has everything you would ever want to hear in a genuine pop punk song: blistering chords complimenting the positive and catchy a chorus that will get hooked on every single word ("We'll sing the songs of better days/and we know that we chose this change/We'll light a fire that burn the sparks we saw that light up the city's skyline").
Closing in as the the swan song of this EP is the bittersweet melodies from Ponyboy Curtis. This song has an inviting ballad-like introduction that can infatuate the heaviest hearts. You would think that in this song, the band would walk away in the night in silence, but in fact the they continue pour out all their emotions into this track as it continues to build up. Blissful as the setting sun, Ponyboy Curtis is a fitting song to close the EP with as you gain a choked up optimistic feeling of sincerity.
Overall whether you may consider this album to be your next guilty pleasure or even better, your new favorite band, Sunsets is a band that will totally get you stoked to take on the day with your head held high. Make It Happen is a heavy-hitting release for any essential pop punk lover new and old. Especially for those who share a love for bands like Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong and Hit The Lights, do not sleep on this band, you'll totally regret it.
Tracklist:
1. Locals Only
2. Vibe City
3. Elsewhere Bound
4. It Ain't Easy Bein' Hebezy
5. Ponyboy Curtis
Rating:
Written by Ryan McGrath
