Introspective and creatively ubiquitous music of all varieties is the main story in 2024, but few of the alternative scene’s most talented acts have been causing the stir that AV Super Sunshine has with the news of a forthcoming extended play, Sweetwater. Sweetwater is a six-song smorgasbord of color, tonality, and richly emotional lyricism that is, at times, even more postmodern than the music that it accompanies. But while “Two Hearts (Guitar Rock Mix)” and “Smile (Guitar Rock Mix)” draw us in with their vortex of harmonies, other tracks like “Sweetwater,” “Steel Bridge (Folk Rock Mix),” and “Change” rely on unsung melodies and an allusion to unspoken narratives that force listeners to think about what they’re hearing from a more existential point of view than they normally would.
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Nothing feels like it’s watering down the compositions that are contained in Sweetwater, no matter the angle we’re looking at them from. AV Super Sunshine is willing to go to any lengths necessary to separate his sound from the pseudo “alternative” dribble that a mainstream critic might have the nerve to compare their avant-gardism within this record, and that’s obvious to anyone who browses its tracklist. “Change” has an almost retro construction to its most flamboyant elements, and instead of translating as hopelessly unrefined, the conflicting components of the song are exactly what makes it so accessible. Audiences have been demanding more experimentalism in their music lately, and it’s plain to see that AV Super Sunshine is planning on answering their calls with everything that he’s got in this latest record.
“August Child” is overwhelmingly cerebral in certain spots, but like the other five songs that it’s next to in this tracklist, it’s never so removed from the outside world that it becomes difficult for the novice listener to enjoy and appreciate the statement that AV is trying to make here. AV Super Sunshine has gotten good at lacing layered storytelling into his music over the last year, and I think there’s no reason to believe that he couldn’t produce something just as ambitious as this project is on a full-length album scale sometime soon. He’s making all the right moves here, hitting all the right notes and diving into uncharted waters as though it were second nature, which isn’t exactly the norm in modern pop at the moment.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/sweetwater-ep/1724163605
Sweetwater isn’t going to surprise a lot of this player’s longtime audience, but for real audiophiles who desire that perfect middle ground between the sagacious and outrageous, what AV Super Sunshine recorded in these six songs is going to be hard for any band to top before the year is over. This is a must-listen if you’ve been keeping tabs on AV’s development over the past decade, but even if you’re just now discovering his work as the New Year gets started, “August Child,” “Smile (Guitar Rock Mix)” and the quartet of tracks that join them here are definite gold. No matter how you appraise the concept, this is music made with great dexterity for an audience that has been hungering for something just a bit outside the box for the better part of the last four years.
Garth Thomas