Album Review: sun is poison “i thought i left you in eden”

BALLSTON SPA – Guitars soaked in reverb, frequent harmonies, and an album that seems to stay in place while surprisingly moving along at a quick clip. That’s what you’ll get with Will Seifert’s – under the moniker of sun is poison – latest release, i thought i left you in eden. Released on January 27^th, this album has a sound and sticks with it well. Having a great sense of “more of the same” songwriting on this album, the record defines its audience quite well. Those that are a fan of the first track will love the entire record. Steeped in indie-rock aesthetics, with an, at times, endearing sense of DIY, i thought i left you in eden has a definitive niche sound.

There were certain songs that seemed to be more memorable than others, such as “swallowed sword;” nice chord progressions and melodies bolstered this song, as well as “long pressed pillow kiss,” whose outro featured a great musical conclusion via ritardando (slowing down). That being said, the vocals – to this listener – were often “buried in the mix” so-to-speak, making it hard to decipher the melody and words during certain moments. Some songs contained more energy in their compositions.

This was definitely the case with “every light on earth,” track four, who took no time finding its instrumentation footing. As I’ve listened to many scores of indie acts over the years, one of the more characteristic qualities of the genre is an oft tongue-in-cheek duality between the feeling of a song and its lyrics. For an example of such a trait, check out “weird avarice (jonah in heaven),” track five; a song about avarice that is rather upbeat. Pairing nicely in tonality, and lyrical textures was the following track, “perished on the whale’s tongue (jonah in hell).” Another thing worth mentioning is that this song appeared to be more fleshed out in terms of arrangement; the song became very stripped down on the last few lines of lyrics. By doing so, sun is poison pulled his audience back from the sonic exploration that happened on this track, making for an ear-grabbing and effective technique.

During some points, my ears perked at a few of the lyrics. For instance, on “javelin,” track seven, the line “we’re only human for so long,” is heard. I really enjoyed that line. After this song, the rest of the album seemed to kind of just, exist, for lack of a better word. Nothing in particular stuck out and made me go, “Whoa, what was that?” As a listener, it didn’t faze me, negatively or positively.

I would’ve liked to hear these songs with a different mixing approach; often it felt like everything was occupying the same sonic space and detracting from the notes the various instruments were playing. If a re-mixed version becomes available, I will definitely listen again; I want to know what was going on in these songs. For this listener, there was definitely a lot of potential heard in this album. You can check out this release by sun is poison as well as other albums by the artist by clicking the link below.

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