I’ve been blown away by the two singles – ‘With Ease’ and ‘Deepest Blue’’ – Sunday has released from this EP. The combination of her music – jazz-folk blended with electronica – and words that are thoughtful and full of meaning is incredibly compelling. So here at last we have her EP to immerse ourselves in. Let’s do that.
Opening with ‘With Ease, this gives me an opportunity to revisit the song. To be honest, apart from falling deeper under its spell, I have nothing else to add to my review. It’s lazy but here’s what I said about it.
The sound of this is at the same time rich and complex, and simple. It’s simple in that at its heart is a tune that is beautiful and quietly compelling. The richness comes from the music; a carefully crafted and fantastically played blend of vocals, instruments and electronic sounds.
It is not a case of when one of the sounds – jazz, folk and electronica – takes a lead; the feel ebbs and flows. Sometimes this is signalled by an instrument – the drums coming in – and sometimes by a stripping back of the sound – to voice, handclaps and synth washes. But it’s seamless, it’s sinuous.
But for me it is Sunday’s voice that charmed and mesmerised me. She goes from soft folky, to jazzy to spoken voice with astounding ease. And she is singing words with meaning. The song is about feeling lost, when your skin doesn’t seem to fit you perfectly and you are yet to grow into it. Sunday explains ‘I hadn’t given myself the time or patience to figure out who I was, during the final year of my degree covid hit and I felt like I was left with nothing. This song explores those feelings of drifting, feeling lost and unsure of yourself especially during such difficult times’
And to commit the same reviewer’s sin, I’m going to do the same thing with the next track ‘Deepest Blue’
The sound of this is at the same time rich and complex, and simple.It’s simple in that at its heart is a tune that is beautiful and quietly compelling. The richness comes from the music; a carefully crafted and fantastically played blend of vocals, instruments and electronic sounds.
It is not a case of when one of the sounds – jazz, folk and electronica – takes a lead; the feel ebbs and flows. Sometimes this is signalled by an instrument – the drums coming in – and sometimes by a stripping back of the sound – to voice, handclaps and synth washes. But it’s seamless, it’s sinuous.
But for me it is Sunday’s voice that charmed and mesmerised me. She goes from soft folky, to jazzy to spoken voice with astounding ease. And she is singing words with meaning. The song is about feeling lost, when your skin doesn’t seem to fit you perfectly and you are yet to grow into it. Sunday explains ‘I hadn’t given myself the time or patience to figure out who I was, during the final year of my degree covid hit and I felt like I was left with nothing. This song explores those feelings of drifting, feeling lost and unsure of yourself especially during such difficult times’.
And now to the first of three ‘new’ songs, ‘Bricks And Mortar’. In this song Sunday seems to be talking about walls as a metaphor for the structures of life, the things that provide the framework of your life, and how sometimes those things fall away and you are left without support.
Musically the song reflects this. It has an off-kilter, almost broken feel at times. While at others it feels reflective. Here the folk feel element of the track reflects a feeling of, what I’m going to call, feeling alone and needing help. While an increasingly chaotic complex jazz element might represent the things that break down those walls.
While this might sound complex, it isn’t; simply put the music tells the story of the words she is singing. Both in her voice and the music there is a theme, there are elements that repeat but they provide a framework for the unexpected, the emotional twists and turns the song takes. And also the build towards the ending of the song.
To get the best from this song you need to immerse yourself in it, take some time to really listen.
‘Breath Again’ brings a happier theme to the musical journey in this EP. The music is lighter, less dense, and Sunday’s vocals are lighter and joyful.
I may be reading something into this EP that isn’t there – but that’s OK, it’s part of being a music listener to layer your own interpretation of songs onto them – but there does appear to be a theme, a story arc in the songs of this EP. In this song it reflects a recovery, a climbing out of the situations in the first three tracks into a better place.
The music here is jazz-folk – skittering piano and guitar, soaring synths, Look I say jazz-folk but approached from another music direction it would be equally as valid to call it a big pop ballad.
The EP closes with ‘Alice’, a song that encapsulates the themes of the other songs. It’s a story of a child growing up to be an adult suffering the hurt that this can sometimes mean, but becoming an adult with hope in their heart having navigated their way through the twists and turns of life. This song, and it’s so entirely right, is the most folky of the five tracks.
It has become my ‘if someone forced me to choose a favourite. I’d choose this’. It’s bittersweet and beautiful. And don’t feel embarrassed if it brings a tear to your eye, it did that to me.
The songs on this EP are gorgeous individually, but listening to it as a whole brings another layer of meaning to the songs. Like a long exposure photograph, ‘Long Exposure’ captures several life stages – one on top of each other, telling a story.
The playing across the songs is absolutely fantastic, the way the sounds of Sunday’s influences – jazz, folk and electronica – are melded into something unique by the musicians is truly unbelievable. But what shines through is the songwriting and vocals. These are songs with emotion, with soul and with meaning. These are songs we can all relate to. And Sunday sings these songs with a voice that compels with its range and beauty.
This is an absolutely wonderful EP, full of beautiful songs and music, it’s that simple.
The info
Songs co-written by Sunday Lendis and Ed Allen
Musicians:
Drums – Theo Goss
Bass – Joe Wilkes
Piano – Glen Leach
Guitars – Ed Allen
Strings – Jed Bevington
Production & Mixing: Ed Allen
Studio engineering: Ed Allen
Mastering: Shawn Joseph
