The Sundowners have had an excellent start in the last 12 months, from touring with the likes of Kasabian and Cats Eyes to festival appearances at Glastonbury and All Tomorrow's Parties, the band have clearly gone the right way about things for the sort of record they wanted to produce: they've honed that live sound in front of crowds and paired those arrangements down into little pop slices that will leave you begging for more. Once things were really starting to kick live the Wirral-based quintet holed up in Liverpool's Parr Studios for a mere two weeks to put down the tracks for this, their first full-length album, which has been expertly produced by Liverpudlian indie-pop aristocracy James & Ian Skelly (from The Coral) and Richard Turvey.

 
The album opens with the curiously arranged 'Wild As The Season' which begins with twenty seconds of ambience (that wouldn't sound out of place on a Sigur Ros album) before a bass line comes in that for some strange reason reminds me of The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang. This is soon reinforced by purring, tremolo soaked guitar blasts and pumping drums that briefly subside to allow a verse that is pure Stevie Nicks era Fleetwood Mac before returning for the sole repeating chorus, carried up and over our heads by that lush FM vocal sound… and then it's over, in just over two minutes: a short blast and perfectly distilled sample of what's in store for us.
 
'Back To You' wastes no time in establishing a pumping drum and bass groove that's almost motorik/kraut-rock accompanied by vintage-sounding guitar licks which peek their heads proudly over a wall of modulation and tremolo effects. The vocals are laid back and dreamy, assisted by whooshing vintage synth sounds. A daydream pulled along by the songs pumping, driving pace – it's a confident slab of psychedelic pop. Next up 'Into The Light' loses none of the established momentum and none of the dreamyness. There's a keyboard and guitar motif that sounds vaguely Bond-ish – or perhaps it's his jauntier, more flower-power cousin Austin Powers. There's a lightness and a dedication to retro sounds (and parts) that comes almost close to kitsch but when those guitar sounds are really fizzing with what sounds like vintage valve-based tone and those floaty vocals sing of colours and sunlight there's something very infectious and authentic to it that cannot be denied.  
 
'Who We Are' gives us a change of pace, it's not so fast and driving but it begins with a great tough and insistent drum pattern, backed by organs that sets us up for a change of mood. We've more of the close harmony dual vocals and a spidery walking bass line, there's even a genius reverse guitar solo which makes me wonder if they used tape or flipped it in pro-tools. The song certainly has it's moments but I wouldn't say it was the strongest song presented here. 'End Of The Game' is another track that gets me thinking of Fleetwood Mac straight from the start. It's not just the strong female vocals; the hard rock-steady drums and bass, which are fleetingly reminiscent of 'Dreams' from the Rumours album, create that sort of vibe and those sweet slide-guitar licks that cut through the reverb-saturation are the icing on the cake.
 
'If Wishes Were Horses' is clearly the bass players moment to really shine. The track opens with a great ascending-descending bass line which carries the song throughout. There seem to be two main approaches to the vocals on the album, those direct up-front voices working off each other and on this track like 'Back To You' and 'Into The Light' both voices are joined together as one in a floaty, phasey, effects-soaked falsetto – both are effective in different ways and it's good to have the variety. When the track breaks down to allow that hypnotic bass to jump to the fore again it's pure ear-candy and the resulting break-down outro section is a touch of class as the drums go half time and the producers get to have some real fun with percussion effects and a wiggly guitar solo.
 
'I Dreamed' feels like a slight change of pace, it's got a cowboys on the prairie feel to it, maybe that's Ennio Morricone's fault? There's certainly an atmospheric sense of driving adventure to the verses and the broken down choruses have this slight hint of a Motown ballad about them. Weirdly I find myself imagining how, with completely different production, this song would sound reminiscent of Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia' – right down to the guitar solo which sounds great with some weird high-pitched octave effects and, of course, plenty of fuzz. This track actually seems a little short to me as I feel such an atmospheric track could be allowed to breath a little more but suddenly it's over and the band waste no time driving head first into 'Hummingbird' which is a great psychedelic pop number, with possibly the catchiest melodic hooks yet. There's something nagging at me as I listen through it the first time, those jingly jangly guitars have the slightest hint of Johnny Marr to them, or perhaps it's Liverpudlian pioneers The La's that I'm reminiscing about? Either way that West-Coast pop-psychedelia the band are so fond of seems to have a habit of coming out sounding like it's been filtered through classic British song-writing minds every time. Again it's a very succinct arrangement that fades away after only two and a half minutes but there's a hint that there's more to be had as tremolo strummed guitars tease at a great psychedelic wig-out that the band may well be treating live audiences to.
 
'Desert Rose' at first appears a little throw-away to me but then as I listen through I keep hearing little moments that pique my interest – there are some twiddles and fuzzy guitar licks that could have come from another of our great British guitarists: Graham Coxon from Blur. 'Soul Responding' has a tremendous amount of fuzz on the guitar and probably the bass too – it's quite an amazing sound – right up front in the mix it dominates the whole track and keeps things interesting with plenty of tremolo arm wobbling. This track adopts that full bodied vocal as opposed to the ethereal falsetto they have at their disposal and it's a great match – really powerful, bluesy delivery. In fact the whole track feels like a full-bodied soul, rock and Motown group who've been hijacked with a madman on fuzz guitar. If you think this sounds like a bad idea you're completely wrong. Again 'Medicine' has powerful soulful vocals, great powerful stabs of fuzzy guitar and driving, clashing drums. It's also got these great moments of tremolo organ or guitar (or maybe both together) that create ambient counter-point sections that wouldn't sound out of place sampled for a Chemical Brothers psychedelic indie-dance number. They use this to good effect on the outro, which fades out.
 
The Sundowners have delivered a really great début album, which ticks a lot of boxes for me. It has a very clearly defined identity and style, brilliantly represented in the production – all the songs sound like they're coming from the same well-stream without sounding samey or repetitive. I find sometimes when a band distils their sound down to key elements so well they run the risk of repeating themselves or boring us. As an album Sundowners carves out a wide enough territory for the band to roam comfortably about in – perhaps a sign there is more than one song-writing force in the band?
 
The album also has a great sense of pace to it, it doesn't drag its feet or dawdle, it gets you from one idea to the next and keeps you swept up in its momentum. Clocking in at around 35 minutes I quite happily listened to this album twice back to back, which is ideal for a début and there's plenty to hint at the bands potential to write more expansive numbers in the future. I think the live band at the heart of this album is what creates that restless pace and gives a dynamic presence to this collection of songs that you won't find on the equally retro-psychedelic output of Tame Impala or Connan Mockasin, for example. Tame Impala tread a similar sonic path without bothering a studio with a real band and I think this makes The Sundowners sound more focussed and less given to the meandering psychedlia and experimentalism that, whilst being popular underground tends to keep bands like these one step too far out of the mainstream. Some of the songs here, like 'Hummingbird' and 'If Wishes Were Horses' really stand out amongst the crowd but overall, for all its strengths, I feel the album needs a few more ear-worm choruses before it can ever be called a classic. Perhaps the high-quality consistency of the album is making me push my expectations beyond the reasonable, nonetheless it is a fantastic starting point for a fantastic new band, I hope they get the attention they deserve and I'm looking forward to seeing the band live.
Adam Kidd