The Beat Surrender

The Curse Of The Sugars is an apt title for this debut album from the Leeds three piece as it works on a couple of different levels. It encapsulates the darkness and sweetness to their music and it sums up the luck of former drummer Jodie Wyatt who had to leave the band two weeks before recording this album, due to a debilitating wrist injury.

Matt Bolton (vocals and guitar) and Anna Greenway (Vocals and bass guitar) have replaced the unfortunate Jodie with a new drummer now, in the form of old friend Alex Lewis and after an intensive practice period, he seems to have fitted in seamlessly.

As an album The Curse Of The Sugars is one of the most dramatic you will hear this year, building on the modern meets retro sounds of their early singles. They’ve made a record that crosses 40’s and 50’s swing, blues and more modern day blues rock, with some pounding drums that give the album a real youthful vibrancy to its mature sounds.

Despite the mix of tracks it’s an album that flows splendidly, opening with the recent rumbling single Black Friday, it moves onto the darker female lead vocal of Unnamed Duet, which Matt does get involved in amongst the heavier guitar riffs, giving a feel of The Black Keys.

From there you get the 1950’s inspired horn drenched ballad Fairytales Of Love, the brilliantly jittery dance track of Monsters and the bluesy-ballad Heaven Knows. Mama is a finger clicking slice of 1940’s style cocktail piano meets gentle guitar and then they change pace to the pounding Gossip.

Way To My Heart is the first Sugars track I heard and it’s great to hear this single make it on to the album, it’s still just as immediate and mesmerising now as it was all those months ago. That is followed by The Seamstress, which for me is a slightly weaker track, but even then its still better than most other bands are producing at the moment and they follow that up with the catchy Everybody Yell.

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