CD REVIEW: SUGARCHILD – Dangerous

Shane | 28 November 2016 | Reply

CD REVIEW: SUGARCHILD – Dangerous
Independent
October 2016
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7 ½ /10

Like The Clouds and The Darling Buds, Sugarchild embodied the indie ‘90s sound, playing darkly dynamic pop rock music. For some reason though, Sugarchild never recorded an album, despite gigging extensively around Perth for several years.

Finally, the foursome are back with an album in tow, and it’s full of atmosphere, beautifully encapsulated with the cover images of Perth’s abandoned Swan View Train Tunnel. Katie Atwell’s vocals spin beguiling webs atop swirling rhythms from bassist and drummer Jo Dolphin and Tim Jewell, and Ian Dolphin’s shard-of-glass guitars. Both Atwell and Jo Dolphin also punctuate the songs with evocative piano here & there.

Enticing though their groove is, featuring intriguing songs about racism in Australian society, zombie apocalypse, parenthood and suicide, the first half feels a little one-dimensional musically. Proceedings lift towards the tail end with Air Miles, Poison Arrow & the swirling Dangerous varying the tempo and adding some brighter colours to their palette.

In many ways this is an album from another time, just as Sugarchild are a band from another time, but this carefully crafted album, populated with songs of love and hate, is long-overdue, and it must be no small task to finally lay down eleven tracks that have been gestating for over twenty years. With Dangerous now out of their system and a solid success, we can only hope that it frees Sugarchild up to create a follow-up without the weight of the past two decades looking over their shoulder.