Sundara Karma - Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect

Sundara Karma
Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect
2017
Spotify

Rock and Alternative did not have the best 2016 with Hip Hop and Electronic further cementing their hold on Pop music. To standout in the genre you really needed to make an impact, but as another year turns so do tastes. With that in mind Sundara Karma have released this new record Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect borrowing from the 1975 in terms of album title length. The comparisons do not end there however with Sundara Karma looking a great deal like the 1975 and playing somewhat similar music. The difference however is that Sundara Karma are much brighter and much more exuberant. Their music is more stadium ready than the 1975's but that is also what makes it more boring. It's not quite Coldplay level anthemic pop but at times it is very close. "Flame" is one of the better tracks on the record and actually got a nice remix from French Producer Roosevelt (Flame - Roosevelt Remix). It has this really bright guitar line that lifts everything up and makes it a whole lot of fun. The next track however seems like some kind of folk music light type of song that really just sounds pretty bad. The more of a pop lean the band tends to take the more the music seems to suffer. They are at their best when they are really pushing things out of the ordinary, which they really do not do enough on this album.

The end of the record really does drag pulling you begrudgingly along. Much of the record sounds so similar that by the time you reach the end it is more of a relief than a disappointment. The pounding drums like on "Be Nobody" are suppose to inspire and elevate, but it sounds like a band trying to make an anthem rather than one just coming organically. Sundara Karma's look also throws you off a bit. Are they really trying that art to look like endogenous artists? Do they really need to? These are the things that really throw you off about them, what exactly is their goal, is it just to fill a new anthemic rock void? If that is the case than Rock & Roll will have more time in the wilderness until they actually figure something out. "Watching from Great Heights" manages to have just enough pretension and laziness to showcase how bad music is made. They may have a claim to one of the longest album titles in recent history, but Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect is simply not good enough to make any real impact.

5.0 out of 10