The Sunny Street
They Hurt You Everyday
Lavender
The Sunny Street are yet another lo-fi gold mine that’s been sitting at the bottom of my review pile for far too long. Distributed via the Swedish label Lavender, this French duo go quite a ways toward redeeming their country’s ignominious – and often joked-about – spot at the bottom of European rock and roll. They Hurt You Everyday is pure Sarah Records, like Field Mice or any other Bob Wratten off-shoot: the production is skimped on, but the emotion is in full effect. The music is steeped heavily in electronics, and slow, gentle soundscapes abound on both the instrumentals and the lyrical tracks. “Greasy Chips” plies this synth fog and indistinct female vocals against a girl group beat on live drums, while “Blackberries” swaps the organic beat for a drum machine and limbers up with New Order-inspired bass leads. These are two of this EP’s stand-out tracks, but the subtle tweaks Delphine Bost and Remi Parson give this pretty standard pop formula make the whole of the work equally enjoyable.
Lavender: http://www.lavender.se