Ruby Suns - Ruby Suns

by Mark Rowland

published: 10 / 12 / 2006

Label: Memphis Industries
Format: CD

intro

Sunny, perfectly harmonied, leftfield indiepop on debut album from the Ruby Suns, the project of Southern Californian-born but now New Zealand-based Ryan McPhun

Ryan McPhun left Southern California and its trend-driven indie scene for New Zealand and has never looked back. It was in New Zealand that he formed the Ruby Suns, part of a scene that revolves around Lil’ Chief Records, where everyone plays in each other’s bands. The Ruby Suns are basically a leftfield indie version of the Beach Boys, complete with impeccable harmonies, sunny melodies, and lyrics filed with naïve imagery. The first two tracks, ‘Trees Like Kids’ and ‘Sleep in the Garden’, are essentially a cappella tracks, made up of layered voices. On third track ‘Maasai Mara’ you hear the fullness of the band’s sound, bringing to mind the densely-layered and equally sunny compositions of Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree. ‘Look Out SOS!’ is a standout track, as is ‘Criterion’, which is particularly ‘Pet Sounds’-esque. Its accordion line and chord structure gives ‘Birthday on Mars’ a distinctly Gallic feel for the first half of the song, until switching back to a Beach Boys sound when McPhun’s vocals kick in.

Track Listing:-

1 Trees Like Kids
2 Sleep in the Garden
3 Maasai Mara
4 Look out SOS!
5 Function of the Sun
6 It´s Hard to Let You Know
7 Criterion
8 Birthday on Mars
9 Trepidation Part One
10 Trepidation Part Two
11 My Ten Years On Auto-Pilot
12 There´s Soup At the End of The Tunnel

Label Links:-

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