“The taste still lingers in my mind.”
The years between 2012 and 2016 saw the rise in popularity of groups like Balance and Composure, Title Fight and Turnover. Defined by their moody reverbed guitars and emo-centric lyricism, mulling on heartbreak and tribulations of day-to-day life. Those who still remain pull in large crowds at festivals and gigs on either side of the Atlantic, with Citizen and Movements performing in front of a hot crowd at last year’s Outbreak Festival. While many still yearn for the return of some of the aforementioned historical heavy hitters, most notably Title Fight, the shoots of the next wave of bands are beginning to emerge.
One of these is Brisbane unit Sunbleached, a product of the lockdown that challenged many in 2020. Since then, there has been a steady flow of new material, that now leads them to sophomore EP, Delicate Places We Hide. Opening with “Spinning Around“, the fuzzy guitars hit the ear like warm summer rays that are complimented by a snare conjuring a toe tapping rhythm. Baker‘s vocals command the track and introduce the first of many vocal hooks that are sure to embed themselves into the minds of listeners with “Bury my heart in your head, before I start to feel the dread coming on“.
Gentle cut “Toyfriend” with its catchy “I’m your toyfriend” line that sits at the crux of the chorus, arguably shifts the gears down slightly too much. Outside of the aforementioned lyric, there is little to prevent a quarter of the this brief EP from drifting by and fading into obscurity. However, Delicate Places We Hide soon picks up with again with “Heavy Turn“, which harbours plenty of moments to latch onto from the “Maybe I will find you, find you” hook, to the juicy guitar solo midway through.
With that, it heads into its final moments with “Closer“, the heaviest cut on the record, that shakes Delicate Places We Hide awake. There is a real emotiveness to the lyrics which the riffs dance around. It’s a solid and impressive closer, especially when it could have been easy enough for the EP to depart on a similar note, resting on its laurels of what came before. There is a slight lingering feeling that an addition of one or two further tracks here would have been welcome, yet it seems the EP was looking to not overstay its welcome, and that is a valid choice in itself.
Concerns around Delicate Places We Hide being too pastiche are difficult to avoid, and while my time with the EP was an enjoyable one, its influences are now far removed enough from the current cultural scene zeitgeist that it evokes a potent sense of nostalgia, that perhaps the EP leans too heavily into, even if the concept is novel. As a result, the ultimate sentiment walking away from Delicate Places We Hide, while this will no doubt be an addition to playlists come summer, there perhaps isn’t enough here that either outdoes or expands upon what those who it looks to imitate did well enough in the first place to truly carve its own niche or justify its place within the scene at large today, even if the effort is valiant.
6/10
Delicate Places We Hide releases this Friday, March 24th via self-release, and you can pre-save the EP here.