Sunflower Bean, the latest buzz-band to come out of New York, have packed so many genres and stylings into their debut LP ‘Human Ceremony’, that they have pretty much single-handedly fashioned one of 2016’s most promising musical cocktails. Traces of Led Zeppelin’s rugged riff-writing can be found on tracks like ‘Come On’, and we see an intricate Johnny Marr-esque guitar lick on ‘2013’. The rhythm section of the band take an approach more in the style of new wave bands closer to home (most noticeably, fellow New Yorkers; Talking Heads and Blondie). This album even manages to cram in a punk track in the form of hard-hitting ‘I Was Home’.
However, a band in the 21st century donning their musical influences on their sleeves is nothing new or inventive. In fact, this has become a common feature in contemporary rock music and has begun to grow increasingly tiresome – such a lack of originality makes one question whether or not there is any individuality left in the music industry. So what sets Human Ceremony apart from every other alternative rock album that has come out in this decade? The answer lies in both the effortlessly blissful production and the intelligent lyricism. It’s almost as if a ‘Sunflower Bean’ filter has been applied to each and every cut on this LP, where a simple indie rock song can be renovated into a piece of psych-pop beauty, or even a succinct punk track. Lyrical maturity is also exhibited throughout, and never more so than on the religion-inspired ‘Creation Myth’.
In the current age of music, everyone can access virtually every song ever written within a few clicks, meaning that claiming to be ‘revivalists’ just doesn’t cut it anymore – a certain degree of innovation, distinctiveness, and progression must be achieved for an album to have any significant impact on the industry. Human Ceremony has marked the birth of a band which undeniably possesses all of those things, and then some. This musical cocktail that Sunflower Bean have concocted, might as well be a drink in its own right.