This debut solo record by Sunflower Bean frontwoman Julia Cumming is ostensibly an attempt to stylistically put clear blue water between herself and the band, although fans of the New York City trio will have noted that she was already in the process of exploring new avenues on their most recent record, last April’s ‘Mortal Primetime’. A straight line can be drawn between that album’s ‘I Knew Love’ – a track which provided a nightly lighters-in-the-air moment when Sunflower Bean opened for Wolf Alice in UK arenas last December – and ‘My Life’, the confessional, lightly bluesy piano ballad that opens ‘Julia’.
From there, the divergence from her band’s pacy, hook-driven indie rock blueprint is pronounced. This is a complete change of pace for Cumming, who takes her cues from hall-of-fame level American songwriters like Burt Bacharach, Harry Nilsson and especially Brian Wilson; The Beach Boys hang heavy over the album’s considered, handsome pop songs, particularly on ‘Please Let Me Remember This’. Elsewhere, there is more than a touch of Laurel Canyon, and specifically Joni Mitchell, to ‘Emotional Labor’ and ‘Sounds of a Secret’, and in terms of the album’s emotional tenor, her pop palette finds room for both breeziness (‘Hollywood Communication’) and quiet drama (‘Fucking Closure’). This is a remarkably assured move into a very different sonic landscape for Cumming – a heartfelt love letter to some classic influences.
