Talk Normal - Sunshine

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 27 / 1 / 2013

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Review

If you were to give this a quick listen, say to the first track 'Lone Normal', you would probably pass it by as a result of its distorted feedback raging down your ear. Talk Normal's 'Sunshine' isn't going to please everyone. But, then again, it is not aimed at everyone. If you're into the likes of Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Laurie Anderson, then it is, however, definitely for you. Forming Talk Normal in 2007, Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro have blurted out a mix of rolling feedback guitar yells and produced a sound unique to themselves. They began with the 'Secret Cog' EP, which generated a handful of desirable reviews. Their debut album, 'Sugarland', which came out in 2009 on Rare Book Room Records, lead to them touring with big names such as Sonic Youth, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Lydia Lunch, and now we are treated to their second album, 'Sunshine'. It will come as little surprise if you've heard them before that this album stays very close to the well-trodden path of the first album, and doesn't deviate much from that. Having said that, there are moments in this wonderfully noisy album of sheer brilliance. Highlights among the yelps and ferocious aggression are the military-infused start of opener 'Lone General' and the title track which spills infectious guitar heartbeats all over your frontal lobe. The harmonic mental psychotic shrieks and distorted rantings work superbly with the surprise breaks and jumps. This is thoroughly good fun reminding me of the recent Die! Die! Die! album, 'Harmony'. The best bit is still to come in the guise of the thunderous 70's beat of 'Shot This Time'. You've got some heavier-than-thou Goldfrapp-type guitar working away its Bolan-esque powers into your subconscious, and then the background vocal yelps competi with the distorted lead. All this is guaranteed to make your head nod in time like a demented nodding dog in the back screen of an old Hillman Imp, and all because she "wants to be one of a kind." The last track on the album, 'Hurricane', lives up to its title with a stormy thunder break slowly clearing away to bring in the brainwashing guitar moanings . These build wildly with ghostly wailings and percussion ticking your life away as Register and Ambro sing that "she makes jam and eggs." Lyrically it is all over the place, but that doesn't matter really. It works for me. The beauty of this offering is being able to drift off with it, listening to those strange dark yelpings and hollerings and and trying to figure out who it is they actually sound like while languishing in its fresh uniqueness and wondering to yourself what they are going to do next with themselves.

Track Listing:-

1 Lone General
2 XO
3 Bad Date
4 Sunshine
5 Hot Water Burns
6 Shot This Time
7 Cover
8 Baby Your Hearts Too Big
9 Hurricane

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/talknormal/
https://talknormal.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/talknormal

Label Links:-

http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/
https://twitter.com/joyfulnoiserecs
https://www.youtube.com/user/joyfulnoi
https://www.facebook.com/joyfulnoisere