Some music takes a while to find the perfect moment to catch the public’s attention. Such luminaries as Radiohead’s career-launching single, “Creep,” A-Ha’s pop classic, “Take On Me,” and even “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin (on its third release 71 years after it was written) weren’t the big hits they would later become first time around. I mention this because this titular, eponymous debut album from Sukilove, for my money, falls into the same category. Now on vinyl for the first time, this 2002 reissue is remastered and ready for another shot.
Perhaps two elements most define the album’s overall sound, and both are present in the opener, “Time To Go.” Hence, I guess the reason we find its opening proceedings is the perfect teasing of the audience and testing of the water. The song is carved out of the same sort of Americana/singer-songwriter vibe that the likes of Wilco have built their sound on. But as it moves forward, rather than their big guitars that often take over, here it is quirky, chamber pop sounds – pizzicato plucking and shimmering sonics, chiming bells and sweeping strings – that add the additional sonic texture.
Throughout the album, those are the two forces that collide and create in various quantities. “Computing Beauty” runs on a cool country-rock groove, one full of hazy, cosmic, shimmering treatments and honest reflections, and “As Long As I Survive Tonight,” one of three singles from this record, seems to be full of looping energy that keeps things tumbling forward as it builds sonic weight and appears to be often on the brink of splintering off in all manner of directions.
“Good Blood Will Prevail” puts the album to bed, a simple, strummed cowboy campfire ballad bathed in banks of gorgeous harmonies and spacious atmospherics.
The band may have called it a day in 2013, but Pascal Deweze, the man behind it all, has, as an in-demand producer, continued to work with music makers across the spectrum and, as a musician, continues to release acclaimed solo records and play with marvelous and mercurial bands such as Kipgeweer and Roosbeef.
As I said on the way in, timing is everything, but I don’t see why this great album shouldn’t finally get its day in the sonic sun.
