You Leave the Light on in My Mind

Let’s make it clear now. I absolutely and sincerely love The Sun Sawed in 1/2. The whole story started with a song called Janet Greene, which I considered a very nice, bouncy song. After that I found their album Fizzy Lift (1997) at a record store in Helsinki (the odds of that?!) and started listening to it. Eventually, in the fall of 2007, I noticed I was in love, again. And with what was I in love? With an album filled with wonderful songs, wonderful melodies, wonderful playing - and not least the utterly sweet and wonderfully amazing singing voice of Doug Bobenhouse.

Soon, I ended up having to remove Fizzy Lift from my mp3 player because other bands didn’t get a single chance to be listened to… Then, I got Bewilderbeest (2000), Sun’s fourth and last album and I loved it. After that, I picked up Fresh Mowed Lawn’s very good self-titled album (2006). Fresh Mowed Lawn is Tim Rose’s solo project, and Tim Rose was the songwriter of The Sun. Today, on this very day, I got Sun’s second full-length album, Mind Flip (1995). I already listened to it once, and what a surprise, it was great.

So, what is it about Sun that draws my attention so effectively? First of all, it’s excellent pop songs. Tim Rose surely knows how to write beautiful melodies and catchy hooks. He writes happy songs about pretty girls and other nice things... There are many songs about happiness, and about misery, too, in his catalogue.

Then, there are the wonderful, energetic, and sometimes quite psychedelic sounds of The Sun. Fizzy Lift is filled with wonderful, jangly guitars. There are also violins, and some of the songs feature wind instruments, which sound brilliant. Bewilderbeest contains lots of Slavic feel and sounds. That is very interesting and sounds amazing, too. The album also features a song called Beholder and His Eye. It's so beautiful a song that I listen to it at least once every day.

And, then there is Doug Bobenhouse’s voice. That sound is simply pure bliss and sweetness to my ears. Doug Bobenhouse’s voice is sweet, joyful and flexible. That means he is able to sing sad songs too, and that sounds equally good. Doug’s voice is also quite nasal and that is what makes it so enchanting. I love nasal singing voices. All my favourite singers have nasal voices at least to some extent.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get some Sun.

The Sun Sawed in ½ at MySpace
Fresh Mowed Lawn at MySpace