With Sun Coming Down Ought have affirmed their place as a band to believe in, one to cherish, who understand that indie rock can still be transcendent and moving.
Sun Coming Down already feels like a cult classic and an institution that embraces a thousand sides of the punk rock coin while retaining a steadfast originality.
Opener ‘Men for Miles’ sounds like Mark E Smith being bludgeoned to death with several very heavy guitars and there’s not much respite over the record’s eight sludgy songs. But give it time and patience and beauty emerges from the chaos.
Ought's neurotic, jittery approach to art rock and post-punk really impressed me on their latest album. Still room for improvement, but very impressive.
The way Ought confront modern bleakness is understandably disaffected but ultimately moving and celebratory, in the idealistic tradition of punk.
It’s not as if Ought ... are terribly original ... But it’s performed with a kind of relaxed intensity that’s utterly engrossing.
Confident enough to bury their influences – David Byrne, Talking Heads, Modern Lovers et al. – a little deeper this time, Ought seem unencumbered by history and intent on carving out their own legacy; they look defiantly forward, not back.
These Montreal post-punks write harsh songs for harsh times on their excellent second album.
The new album takes full advantage of Ought’s fully revved, road-tested engine and increased horsepower, in a strike-while-the-iron’s-hot move.
Loose and taut in equal measure, Sun Coming Down roars and whispers but never does it hit too hard.
There are no tricks on show here, the sound is refreshingly clean, the ethos is admirably simple, embracing the DIY punk spirit and spitting out a beautiful record that will also fill that Sonic Youth-shaped hole in your life.
Sun Coming Down constantly engages and enthralls with an odd sense of humor, cementing Ought as one of the few contemporary post-punk acts that seamlessly merge frantic irreverence with feral intelligence.
Sun Coming Down is Robin Hood-rich with pithy one-liners punctuated by Keen’s hi-hats, crashing through Darcy’s free-associating swarm of noise.
There’s a marked step forward in the deceptive depth of Sun Coming Down, and Ought perhaps traded in some of their debut longplayer’s immediacy in getting it, but their wit and emotional complexity remain stronger than ever.
Ought proved extremely skilled at the clever interplay between music and lyrics on the group’s debut, and have only strengthened that talent since.
Sun Coming Down gives us just enough new ideas while highlighting everything that makes this band great.
Edit (74 —> 85) After falling in love with Cola (the singers other project), I wanted to revisit this to see if it would grow and holy shit yeah it did, this is great. Beautiful Blue Sky is still the huge standout but the rest of the album is great as well. Good stuff
Watching the sun come down is nice af
Ought’s second record pretty much lands in the same ball park as they’re first in a lot of ways. I still enjoyed it though for sure. Cool guitar work and good ... read more
I wanted to listen to this album for like 4 years now but somehow I always found a way to listen to something else. The only reason I wanted to check it out in the first place is "Beautiful Blue Sky". I've randomly listened to that song years ago and I absolutely love it ever since.
I didn't have any expectations and even if I wasn't blown away I really like this record. It's not the most unique sounding post-punk project I've heard but it definitely has a lot of special moments ... read more
▲ = Passionate Turn, The Combo, Beautiful Blue Sky, On The Line, Never Better
▬ = Men For Miles, Sun's Coming Down, Celebration
▼ =
1 | Men for Miles 5:45 | 86 |
2 | Passionate Turn 5:18 | 86 |
3 | The Combo 3:35 | 81 |
4 | Sun's Coming Down 5:03 | 81 |
5 | Beautiful Blue Sky 7:44 | 97 |
6 | Celebration 3:12 | 76 |
7 | On the Line 5:04 | 88 |
8 | Never Better 4:47 | 88 |
#8 | / | Norman Records |
#11 | / | The Needle Drop |
#13 | / | Loud and Quiet |
#29 | / | Stereogum |
#42 | / | The Skinny |
#55 | / | Crack Magazine |
#80 | / | PopMatters |
#87 | / | Rough Trade |
#88 | / | Drowned in Sound |