As much as I detest the ideals behind large scale, impersonal streaming sites, I owe a lot to Spotify. The number of musicians and bands I’ve discovered through Spotify seemingly outnumber the stars, or at least it feels that way sometimes.
A couple of years prior to this review, I was recommended a band from across the pond, Crooks, and their fantastic 2015 album, Are We All the Same Distance Apart. Years pass and tastes change, and while I don’t listen to the album consistently anymore, the song “Schöne Seele” still finds its way on to many playlists and shares. Fast forward to the now, and another Discover Weekly sends me to the sounds of Sullii. I’m immediately hooked on what I hear.
Likening itself to the work of MISOGI and Eden in my head, I needed to know more about this artist who seemingly came out of the woodwork to an immediate amount of musical polish and success. Some digging leads me to an answer and a mirror. Sullii is a new project from lead singer of Crooks, and it so perfectly reflects my own shift in musical tastes from 2015-2018 that I can’t help but find it humorous. A long intro, I know, but it serves to demonstrate the interconnected world we now live in and put music out into. Things are a lot different than even three years ago, and the music that’s being made reflects that. All that being said, here’s Sullii’s new EP, 42.
“Guess I’ve got some things to say.” And with that one line, shot out like a scorned lover’s objection to a wedding, a new star is formed. Alright, that may be a bit presumptuous, but it’s quite obvious from song 1 on the EP, “I D D U:” that Sullii is looking to be a force to be reckoned with. It isn’t going to blow out your speakers or melt your brain with it’s complexity, heck it isn’t even some new revolution in the genre, but it’s polished, tight, and demonstrates that keen ability to write a good hook that great artists have.
One of the EP’s greatest strengths is the way it seamlessly transitions tracks, specifically by sharing lyrics track-by-track. This seamlessness is something of a common practice in the rock music this artist played previous, but I’ve yet to find it as well done in this genre as Sullii’s transition from the opener to next song, “Ponyo.” “Ponyo” feels like the darker older brother of “I D D U:” – It retains the main hook, “I’m so glad that I found you,” shifting it’s place in the song and the tone of delivery, supported by a chillier backing track. It’s really well done and caught me off guard on first listen.
But “Ponyo” gives way to “Sosuke,” and while this track didn’t wow me, it doesn’t dive in quality. The incorporation of guitars that characterize this song and the next demonstrate a degree of diversity in the artist in a short time, which is of note. That next track, “H O L L O H,” is a plodding affair with desperation, finding the very composed vocalist at their most impassioned, with the constant repetition of the strikingly simple “I want you out of my head.” But where Sullii really shines and finds his own on the EP is closer, “Pallettown.”
This is the song to introduce one to Sullii with. The vocals flutter over piano-led waves of instrumentation which wash over a steady beat, occasionally intermittent with very melodic yet indeterminable vocal samplings. Another fantastic aspect of the track and one I wish to see more of from the artist is the subtle vocal pushes in the backing track, almost raising to a shout at times. Its tone is oddly nostalgic for such a fresh cut, it’s breezy, it’s smooth, and it’s impression is palpable. If this song is the height of Sullii’s work as of yet, I cannot wait to see the artist push even further and go beyond this.
Sullii comes out of the gate with a lot of firepower on 42. It’s quite obvious that there should be nothing but good things to come from this artist, if this EP is any indication. I guess I have to hand it to Spotify in the end, they seem to know just what I want to hear. Sure, that may mean that eventually music will devolve into a digitally monetized Hellscape where chart toppers scramble to be the first to infect ears through computers and the all-mighty dollar, but as long as I can get artists like Sullii delivered to me, I think I’ll be fine with it.