The Suncharms Things Lost

When The Suncharms issued Distant Lights in August 2021, your trusty reviewer told the somewhat incredible story of how the band – who started out in Sheffield in 1991 – took thirty years to get their inaugural LP issued. Let's recap.

It’s 1991. Backed by a steadfast Sheffield following, you’ve just released two EPs, made a dent in the indie charts and recorded a John Peel session. The future’s bright, right? Wrong. Success sadly stalled, and a lack of momentum led to the band going down a well-trodden nineties indie path, culminating in Palmer, Neale, Malone, Farnell and Ridley going their separate ways. The Suncharms’ sunburst was over.

Or was it? In 2016, Cloudberry Records (a New York label specialising in reissuing ‘tough to find’ music generated by social media interest) approached the band with a view to releasing a nineties compilation CD. A comeback single, ‘Red Dust / Film Soundtrack’, followed in 2018, with the now-reconvened band taking a further three years to record Distant Lights – extraordinarily, their debut album.

After 30 years, The Suncharms’ fire had finally been relit. Fast forward two years and the success of Distant Lights has now spawned a follow-up album, Things Lost, with the band in severe danger of attracting charges of profligacy. What's evident immediately through Pavement-esque opener ‘3.45’ is a gear shift in confidence and musical maturity – harmonies and melodies abound through the dream-pop of the title track and the reflective ‘Whitby’.

Sure, there will be inevitable references to Teenage Fanclub and early Kurt Vile, especially on ‘Red Wine Kisses’, but the darker tones evident on ‘Demonic Eyes’, with it's Sea Power-ish guitar, and ‘Torrential Rain’ demonstrate the band are unafraid to follow a less well-trodden musical path. Finally, hats off to Sunday Records for their loyalty and support of The Suncharms, a shining example of the sadly forgotten pre-requisite of a record label to provide long-term investment in a band.