Insight & Critique
  • DAC
  • Indie Music Album Reviews
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Top albums
  • Features
  • Contact

Uptight Sugar - Under Blue Light

3/19/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Uptight Sugar

​
Under Blue Light
self-released; 2018

4.1 out of 5 - TOP ALBUM

 
By Jamie Robash

Spearheaded by singer/songwriter David Hamilton, the Cleveland, Ohio five-piece Uptight Sugar have been gigging in and around Cleveland for the past three years and have finally decided to lay down a few tracks for a proper EP. The result is the vibrant and eclectic Under Blue Light, a record that made me smile from the first run through for its striking sound quality (the multiple studios who recorded this record deserve some applause: Lava Room, Jim Stewart Recording, and even a few bandmates’ basements) but also its striking songwriting quality.

The first band that came to mind was Spoon, that like Uptight Sugar has with every record managed to take rock and pop into directions which no one else dared to take them and come back with brilliant results.

The band kicks off Under Blue Light with the pop-rock piano and guitar driven “Diggin’ Holes.” The tune hooks you from the very beginning with its punchy rock sounds and then once it has you takes you along into a sparkling miasma of rock that feels like falling down a glittering rabbit hole into a different world.

Next up we are taken further into sonic rock territory with the blues meets orchestral rock on the maddening beauty of “Broken Love” with its giant swells of ten-foot-tall waves of electric guitar, keyboards and even a harmonica that rocks harder than a lot of guitar rock. It’s an impressive composition and sounds really awesome with the volume cranked up.

Next the band drops it down quite a few notches for the short and spacey interlude “In a Hole,” a shimmery bit of synth-pop that gives Under Blue Light some nuance and texture and shows that these guys aren’t just slapping a bunch of songs together to make a record, as though it were a sandwich, but rather they are layering and creating a mood, and the record has that sense of good filmmaking. We are then treated to the clubbiest and most engrossing of tracks “At the End of the World” which is equal parts rock n’ roll and lighted dance floor antics.

​With Under Blue Light, Uptight Sugar has a lot going for them. They understand that taking chances and knowing which chances to take has a great stake in where a band is able to go and to grow over time. Anyone can make a dance record, and anyone can make a rock record, and trying to do both without knowing the mechanics of all this usually ends up spitting out something that resembles neither and is just a splatter of what someone would like to think of as art. Uptight Sugar however have made something real with Under Blue Light and I hope they continue to make more of it.
Tweet
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

       Critique/insight

    We are dedicated to informing the public about the different types of independent  music that is available for your listening pleasure as well as giving the artist a professional critique from a seasoned music geek. We critique a wide variety of niche genres like experimental, IDM, electronic, ambient, shoegaze and much more.

    Tweets by divideanconqer
    Are you one of our faithful visitors who enjoys our website? Like us on Facebook


    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

Company

About
Contributors

Newsletter

Newsletter
Book Your Band

© Divide and Conquer 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • DAC
  • Indie Music Album Reviews
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Top albums
  • Features
  • Contact