Opinion Review

Skinnee Sunrise: Senior Year

Catchy yet slightly muddy in its overall exhibition, Skinnee Sunrise’s debut EP is the cumulative result of years spent navigating the Gauteng music scene and establishing the current make up of the band.

The band offer up an easy EP which, while it struggles to quite find its feet, presents an interesting take on the rock genre. From the light-rock, energy-fuelled angle of ‘The Leftovers’, whose playful lyricism fleshes the track out – “I don’t want to be an asshole but you’re the last one left/everybody’s got someone to dance with” –  to the grittier aspects of ‘Prom Song (You Do You)’, where they lean towards an indie rock tone akin to that of Desmond and the Tutus.

The overall theme ties into the nostalgic culmination of the end of adolescence, as the EP title suggests. Simplistically, the tracks explore the good times and the bad times one has growing up and it is something of a crescendo to the end of an era.

‘Shoes’ is steeped in experimental bluesy influence, which doesn’t quite gel, while ‘A-OK’, built on a whining electronic guitar riff, underpinned by a solid baseline which roots the track in a rhythmic melody, is comfortably off-kilter. ‘Butterfingers’ wraps things up with a psych edge which pulls the EP in at the edges, and in spite of its simplistic nature, it packs a punch at the end of the offering.

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Listen to the album on Apple Music.