SUUNS - Felt

I had never heard of SUUNS before finding Felt in the discount bin. The clearance bin that once seemed to be teeming with possibilities had been getting thinner and thinner over the last few months. The once rich field that had yielded a crop of Marco Polo Platters had just about been picked clean. It was the same stock, different day, and albums I'd seen and rejected were now getting a closer look. After months of flipping and skipping, I found myself looking closely at the album, trying to see if there were any hints on the jacket that would give away the contents.

Admittedly, I didn't want to just lay down my money and have this be a complete waste of my time, so I checked to see what genre the band was classified under. I didn't read too far. I got as far as them being considered a rock band and figured, "Good enough." The album cover was not a wealth of information, merely listing the songs in an embossed font against a lime green background that was only clearly visible when you moved the cover.

The inside sleeve was equally generous with details (for those who've not read any of my previous meanderambles, that was sarcasm). At least it was legible, all caps against a black background. SUUNS: Ben Shemie, Liam O'Neill, Max Henry, Joseph Yarmush. I'm going to assume they were Canadian (oh Canada, eh?) as the band recorded Felt in Montreal over the first six months of 2017.

Felt, released in 2018, was their fourth studio album on the Secretly Canadian label (now I know the band is Canadian). They've since released two more albums, The Witness (2021) and The Breaks (2024). I suspect, if they stay true to their schedule, we'll see another album in 2027.

Dropping the needle on something completely new fills me with anticipation. Those first notes are my introduction and first impression. "Look No Further" opens with church bells. My first thought is of Christmas morning, and The Bells of Dublin by The Chieftains. This feeling lasts for maybe a second or two before the song settles into a decidedly lo-fi trap beat, with atonal keys playing a counter melody to a deliberately disinterested lead vocal that's accompanied by an almost Eastern-feeling guitar. It got my attention. It wasn't boring. I was intrigued.

Not letting up, the band launched into a fantastic bit of pop wizardry that felt as familiar as it was new. I think my brain gets a bit overwhelmed and defaults to trying to categorize what's coming in. As the record played, I was struck by how rough the songs were, but this feeling of haphazard, cacophonous chaos was just masking the deliberate structure anchoring them together.

SUUNS are a rock band in the broadest sense of the word. This is not rock, this is something else. What I was hearing called to mind the progressive electronic experimentation of the '70s married with the pop sensibilities of new wave. There are times SUUNS sound like the illegitimate lovechild of Interpol and Pet Shop Boys, and Radiohead and Billy Corgan are godparents.

As much as rock and roll has changed over the years, it's always weirdly comforting to hear bands like this creating something new that feels fresh while feeling familiar at the same time. The reality is they are standing on the shoulders of giants, and by building upon the past they have added to the whole. I love that I can discover music like this that ever so gently pushes me outside of my comfort zone.

While the basic ingredients are all familiar, the musical combination at times made for an anxious listening experience. Something about the frenetic pace and the dissonance created a palpable tension that kept building without release or respite. To be a bit crass, it was musical edging.

After listening to close to a dozen songs (ELEVEN, it was eleven), it was less about the individual songs than the experience. Which is odd for me. I'm drawn to the cotton candy songs, the hooks and melody, whereas the first couple of times through Felt, the songs felt like chapters in a story rather than standalone vignettes. This isn't to say there aren't musical highlights; there are ... (I was this close to making a list of the three or so highlights) but somehow when the record is done I think about the album and not the songs. It was Felt as much as it was heard.