The new record from Ohio's Speaking Suns is a lengthy, exhaustively-tuneful record. Out last Friday on Anyway Records, Range is also full of bright, mature power-pop that deserves some real attention.
This Ohio four-piece have a knack for melding a bunch of disparate influences into a fairly distinctive brand of alt-rock. If "Modern Love" recalls a few New Zealand bands from earlier decades, the lyrical and poppy "Honing In" and "The Void" echo numbers from more current acts. Elsewhere, stuff like "Out Of Range" and "So Sure" suggest an odd mix of Eighties Pink Floyd and Jellyfish, while the buoyant "These Are The Days" earns favorable comparisons to mid-period stuff from The Jayhawks, or Wilco. One negative here is that the songs are all a bit long, with the expansive "River" topping out near the 10-minute mark. For a new band, Speaking Suns are perhaps biting off more than they can chew with this approach, despite some strong strengths on display here. That said, the numbers are all relatively fine examples of modern power-pop, even if they are all uniformly too long.
There's a lot to love on Range, out now on Anyway Records, and I do highly recommend it to fans of bands of robust and decidedly-melodic alt-rock. Follow Speaking Suns via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Uncredited, via Anyway Records]