I’d been hearing about the band Sugar For The Pill for a little while now. I had them on my ‘must listen to’ list. It wasn’t until my pal Richard from The Velvet Hum messaged saying that I really needed to give them a listen that I sat up and paid attention. Fast forward an hour and I’d pre-ordered the vinyl and was loving what I was hearing.
So, who are Sugar For The Pill? They are a Greek dream pop outfit based in the beautiful city of Athens. The name, as you might have guessed, is a tip of the hat to the seminal Slowdive tune. With a name as on-the-nose as that I was fully expecting a wholesale “lift and shift” of the Slowdive sound. I was waaaay off.
The band consists of Vana Rose (vocals), Spyros Mitrokotsas (guitars), Elias K (guitars), Stefanos Manousis (bass/keyboards) and Konstantinos Athanasopoulos (drums).
Their debut full length album is called Wanderlust, and I’m pleased to report that this is something a bit special. Let’s dive in and explore its ten tracks and find out why.
The album opens on the spacious and wide-open vista of ‘Quicksand’. Straight out the gate you get a feel for the ambition and drive this band embody. The contrast in guitar textures between chorus and verse feels like the two lovers the song is written for. The band say of the track, “Love is a quicksand, and every quicksand necessitates right thinking and right action or else sinking becomes the only fate.” Beautifully put.
We move into the punchy ‘Drink Conium’ next. We are moving at pace now. I love how the guitar mimics Rose’s vocal line at the end of the verses. It is the frantic chants of “Drink Conium” in the choruses though that lift this song to new heights. It was this song that really sold me. This is what I like to call a CHOON!
As we move into ‘Falling Back To You’ it becomes clear that the quality of songs on display maintains an incredibly high standard. There’s an understated simplicity to this one, a new timbre in the vocal and a hook that doesn’t let up. The band say of this track “This is a song about realizing the true intentions of a bad lover/friend. It’s what we call a cleansing moment of clarity.”
‘Soul Can Wait’ comes in all swaggering on stadium-sized licks and riffs. This is the very sound of the ambition I mentioned earlier. They are recording music to play to thousands of people from festival stages. Man, this track is huge and they sound incredibly comfortable embodying it.
We take the pace down a notch next for the sublime ‘More Than A Lover’. This song sounds like an oil painting (bear with me). The glossy production belies the depths of meaning and layers of shading and tone beneath. Am I still making sense? I hope so. We’re halfway through this album and it only feels Iike I hit play five minutes ago.
Into the second half we go with ‘Moan Of The Thunder’. A monumental ballad of velveteen guitars draped around Rose’s delicate tones. The band say that their “music feels like ‘floating’, at times with a wider, dynamic momentum created by a well-reined wall of sound.” For me, that’s a perfect description of this number.
With the track ‘Diamonds’, Rose pivots back to her more assertive vocal style, owning this song start to finish. For the first time they sound dark and almost goth-tinged. Let me tell you, this approach and sound really suits them as a band. The guitars and especially Manousis’ bass come to life dancing about and around the vocals. Never getting in the way, always adding to and uplifting them.
‘I Wish I Was The Fire’ is hopeful anthem built around an insistent drum beat from Athanasopoulos. He really makes this song with his deft and precise percussive patterns. The richly-textured guitars stand alongside, working with and for the beat. There’s no egos in this band, every player has a space to shine.
That importance on sharing the soundstage continues into ‘Shiver’. Rose takes the opportunity to really stretch her vocal range, from the high and floaty intro to the driving, powerful verses.
The album comes to a close with ‘Stardust’, and they really capture the floating space vibe. The ethereal vocals float over some quite cosmic guitars, while the rhythm section throbs a steady beat like a distant pulsar reaching out across the universe. What a stunning bookend to truly magnificent album.
In Wanderlust the band have crafted a debut that delivers consistently across all ten of its tracks. The album has a sound all of its own whilst drawing influence from all our favourite 90’s bands. Most of all, this platter is all heart. Everything is laid out in the grooves; nothing was held back. That authentic originality is what’s going to win Sugar For The Pill more and more fans as word gets out. Don’t be like me, don’t delay, go check this album out today. Because, like me, you’ll be so glad you did.
Wanderlust is out now on limited edition red vinyl with a stunning deluxe sleeve. In the US you can grab a copy via Shelflife Records; available in Europe via Make Me Happy Records or Rough Trade.
Make sure you keep up to date with Sugar For The Pill on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bandcamp and YouTube.
Post comments (0)