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The Sunshine Factory Sugar
(Self-Released) Buy it from Insound
The Sunshine Factory really like one band. Granted, that band is wildly influential and by all means worthy of being a favourite, but there's a fine line between wearing your influences on your sleeve and coming off as overly derivative.
Sugar kicks off with Down, which sounds like AC/DC’s Hells Bells for about 20 seconds before morphing into a distant cousin of My Bloody Valentine's I Only Said. The MBV influence is audible elsewhere on Sugar, with Don’t Fall Asleep and the beginning of Twisted and Clover bringing to mind Sometimes and Only Shallow respectively.
My Sugar Cane and My Bon Ami are both pretty good songs, but to be fair the quality of the songwriting is not really The Sunshine Factory's problem. There are few original voices in the overpopulated shoegaze and dream-pop genres these days, and when I hear the tremulous guitars, buried vocals and chugging drumbeats of Sugar all I want to do is put on Loveless instead. They’d be better off just covering it. The excellent version of I Only Said on the band's MySpace suggests they’re already halfway to being the world’s best My Bloody Valentine cover band.
(Article amended on 13 March 2011)
3 March, 2011 - 16:32 — Andrew Baer
Comments for Sugar review
About the review of the "Sugar" album by The Sunshine Factory
I want to thank Andrew Baer for being kind enough to take a second look at our Album "Sugar" We do not deny the influence of MBV. We are far from a MBV cover band other than the one cover we have done for a compilation of covers. ( We were in good company with such bands as American Gods and APTBS also on the first compilation in the series.) I think for a band who has only recorded two albums, which can be heard at thesunshinefactorymusic.com, we are building on the luminaries of the past and moving toward a bright future. Shoe gaze is a wonderful genre. We are glad to contribute. There is no sin in using a tremolo guitar. Buried vocals,Not sure I get that.There can be no comparison at all with the lyrics. We thank you for listening and judging for yourself. The Band itself does not even care to comment they are quite comfortable with what they have produced and it has been received widely with much love all over the world, including in the U.K.This in fact was the first negative review out of many,many reviews, articles and blogs. I as the manager felt compelled to defend these hardworking and sincere musicians who labor in near obscurity producing music for the love of it and so that others might enjoy something beautiful.
Thank you with all my heart, Robert, Manager, TSF
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