Sunday, April 3, 2011

Martin Phillipps and the Chills - Sunburnt (1996)


This is a bright, sunny, spirited album whose tracks soar through the air and is perfect for a day of azure skies and warm weather. Outside of one schmaltzy (but sincere) song about relationship communication problems, "Lost in Future Ruins" (one of my favorites on the album), this is such an inspiring piece of work. Title track "Sunburnt" carries a splendid piano aria as Phillipps sings "Lying still, making plans, and getting sunburned" - my favorite lyric on the record. Martin's first album under his own name (and deservingly so as the Chills has always been his own project) is 13 songs of blissful, well composed pop numbers. It's a shame that he went from feeling so free and optimistic to so depressed and downtrodden in his brilliant 2000 solo album, Sketch Book: Vol. 1. Despite that emotional transition, this album always makes me feel elated and I hope it has the same effect on you.

Rating: 9/10

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3 comments:

  1. lovely! just happened across your blog & wanted to thank you for posting this. i love the chills, but have yet to listen to this one. :)

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  2. It's my pleasure. This is one of my favorites of theirs simply because it evokes such good feelings. I hope you like it :)

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  3. I just bought a secont hand CD of this yesterday. A beautiful brilliant album

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