ALBUM REVIEW: Twentytwo in Blue, Sunflower Bean, Lucky Number Music, Out Now

New York City glam rock trio Sunflower Bean are sticking up for the 1970s with their second album, Twentytwo in Blue.

The 22 in the album title refers to the ages of band members Julia Cumming, Jacob Faber and Nick Kivien when the album was released, the result of a year in the recording studio between December 2016 and December 2017.

None of the trio were alive when bands, such a T-Rex, Slade, Sweet, Mott the Hoople and Mud were making a fashion out of space boots, flared trousers and shoulder length hair.

But Sunflower Bean are basing their entire music on an age that people prefer to ignore, with opening track Burn It straight out of a songbook that could have been written by Blondie or Fleetwood Mac.

Indeed, Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks appear to be the decisive influence on Cumming's vocals, I Was a Fool, Twentytwo, Only a Moment and Any Way You Like being four examples of the Blondie/Fleetwood Mac sound.

However, Puppet Strings is almost a reworking of T-Rex's Get It On, while Memonia could easily be taken as a tribute to Steely Dan.

Then suddenly Twentytwo in Blue takes a totally different on the last third of the album as Any Way You Like, Sinking Sands and Oh No, Bye Bye all show a softer, gentler side to New York City's 21st century glamrockers.

Review by Winston Brown