With an album of guitar-focused songs that could have easily found a home on the old Touch and Go record label, Sunnsetter dives into an ocean of emotion, though the lyrics never go too deep. This is music meant more for a suggestion of a feeling than a fully fleshed-out idea, however. Music that feels like summer vacation in middle or school, for me—it draws me back to the 90s, before I could drive a car, and listened to my boom box for hours on end, in my suburban bedroom with the Van Gogh and Monet paintings of seaside scenes on my wall.

There is a painterly way Sunnsetter has, creating impressions much like the Impressionist painters, so that there is a lot of blur and splash and suggestion of color. They even have two successful non-lyric songs on this ten track, forty minute album; like “At The End of the Day,” which recalls those other impressionistic soundsmiths, Sigur Ros. But mostly it is throwback indie, with an emphasis on satisfying chord changes and atmospheric drones.

“Surely everything’s alright / I know everything’s alright.” There is a repetition to the music, a way that “floats in circles,” that acts meditatively upon your heart and your soul, and some of their lyrics, simple though they are, could act as mantras. This is music to “vibe” to, for sure, and the bright guitar strings resonate with a brightness within you, though none of it is predictable in the way that bright music often is.

“Put me on the radio / I’ll sing / Tell ‘em what I know,” they sing on a song with chords that cleverly sound a bit like a skipping record. This is not at all stuff that you find on mainstream radio, but I’m willing to bet that independent and college radio will consider this album an unearthed gem, with its firm root in guitar-focused indie history. While I like my music to have something lyrically to hold onto, the music more than makes up for the lack in that compartment. These songs are golden, like summer sun rays, and I hope the sun doesn’t “set” for this impressive and up-and-coming band, but shines brighter and brighter as the years go on.

order The best that I can be by Sunnsetter HERE