Critic's evaluation
There seemed to be no turning back, but the public was surprised. After a 22-year hiatus, Semisonic announced their return with the first new material since All About Chemistry, their third and until then last studio album. Entitled Little Bit Of Sun, the material was recorded in Minneapolis, the group's hometown.
The guitar appears, soft and sweet, but with a curious and contagious bucolic perfume. Without delay, and amidst the undulating linearity of the melody, Dan Wilson appears with his iconically hoarse voice and sweet notes. Taking in silhouettes of a sunny landscape as the tinkling of the tambourine introduces the rhythmic tempo, the title track is completed when Jacob Slichter's drums enter the scene, giving a north to the mature folk sound. With bursts of warm, sunny tenderness, the guitar gives the song a hopeful and stimulating air, while the track tells the story of a character immersed in depression and struggling to overcome his particular pains. In his longing for help to overcome his depressing ecstasy, the individual is aware of his condition and admits that he can see glimmers of hope on the horizon.
Fresh, soft and contagious. Right from the start, that mid-afternoon sun bursts through the window and invites the listener to go outside and feel the breeze through a stimulating melody structured between guitar and drums. Able to incite nostalgia in the listener through its sound, the song is remarkable for its sweetness and youthful structure which, between the syncopated tinkling of the piano sonar coming from John Munson's keyboard, features happy hints of boogie-woogie. With sweet backing vocals and trumpet sonars enhancing the melody of the chorus, The Rope comes across as a cheerfully bubbly song that can easily bring smiles to viewers' faces. Meanwhile, the track invites you to immerse yourself in a storyline that initially sounds like a bath of guilt, regrets and memories after the end of a relationship. However, it's actually a nostalgic ode to the city of Los Angeles. And that's where Semisonic surprises. After all, it uses a nostalgic narrative of the city of angels as a metaphor for the band's own reality, which remained separated for a long time, but when reactivated, it seemed as if no time had passed, and the chemistry, rapport and synchronicity remained intact. The Rope is a sweet and emotional melodic representation of a strong reunion embrace.
Softened and with a naturally sensual body thanks to the robust but delicate bass, the melody offers the listener a contagious sugary flavor that moves between folk and an embryonic 1980s hard rock. Despite the inviting sound of its awakening, Grow Your Own ends up taking a melancholic and nostalgic course as it seems to recall the group's early years. The desire to make music, to find their way, their motivation, their purpose and to know that showbiz can be a possible dream, led the group to be born, to structure themselves and to achieve a certain degree of fame. Sounding, therefore, like autobiographical material, Grow Your Own, with its catchy chorus, also has a sense of maturity and perseverance. Simply put, it's a motivational song that encourages and teaches you to fight and not give up on your dreams.
It's like driving along a dirt road on a spring evening. While the speed continues, the wind that invades the interior of the car is bathed in comforting freshness and floral aromas. A delicate and generously soothing guitar riff governs the moment. Through vocal overlays so simple that they sound like a double whisper, Don't Fade Away presents the listener with a folk song that is aesthetically minimalist, but whose simplicity recreates the same energy found in both the Into The Wild soundtrack and the song To Leave Something Behind, a single by Sean Rowe. Growing in harmony from the entrance of the ukulele and the rattle outlining the rhythmic beat, Don't Fade Away has lovely bucolic touches in its narrative about reconnecting with the simple and the consequent escape from big cities, their fast-paced, clock-ruled routine.
Contagiously serene and with a comforting, soft and lovingly inviting flow. The new song is like standing on top of a hill at dusk, next to your loved one, swearing and bowing to love. Romantic, All The Time, as it reaches its peak, also offers, from the delicacy of the piano, a touching harmony whose aesthetic resembles that of Rocket Man, an Elton John single. All The Time is a song in which the character finds himself trying to satisfy himself with the person he's in love with, despite his behavioral imperfections.
Keeping freshness as the basic ingredient of its melody, the new horizon brings the bass and its groovy bass base to the fore during the introduction. Floral due to the melodic riff emanating from the guitar on the sound surface, Keep Me In Motion relies solely on the combination of drums and bass as an element to deliver rhythm during the airy verses. With the atmosphere of a summer evening, the track shows an individual realizing his lack of vivacity and, from this, assuming the need for help to regain a taste for life. "I just need a spark. Keep me in motion, don't let me go", he asks with dense, suffering honesty.
He brings a curiously nauseating softness. The fusion between the tinkling of the celesta keys and the sour guitar riff suggests a delicacy that is sonically uncomfortable due to its mild bitterness. Building a melody similar to that of Immitation Of Life, a single by R.E.M., If You Say So, with its acoustic energy, seems to be a kind of reflection, a sudden insight into the experiences that took place during Semisonic's heyday. The successes, the trips, the shows, the places visited, the fights, the songwriting meetings. If You Say So sounds like coming out of a hypnosis and assimilating various experiences. No wonder the character says "could it all have really happened? It feels so long ago. Could it all have really happened? I guess it did if you say so".
An infectious swing is offered through a cheerful dawn based on the synchrony between piano, drums and Jason Isbell's lead guitar. The melody that emerges from them draws on a curious fusion of blues, folk and jazz. With a more strident vocal, Wislon soon begins to draw the lyrical lines of Out Of The Dirt, while the sound remains more linear. Even so, its contagious structure keeps the listener attentive to its reflective lyricism that life is cyclical, to the point that it paraphrases Ecclesiastes in its line from dust we came and to dust we shall return. Still, Out Of The Dirt presents itself as a departure from the universe of fantasy, from the island of dreams, to a rational and realistic world.
Its texture is soft and its landscape is beachy. However, the introductory melody offers a numbing hypnotic sensation, as if the mind were being dominated by someone else. Thanks to the echoing whistle, this impression lives on until the drum kit is hit twice in succession, providing a double shrill and a call back to reality. Given its 4x4 feel, It Wasn't Like We Hoped It Would Be brings a striking synergy between ukulele, drums and bass, the latter of which, as on Keep Me In Motion, is more prominent. Unreasonably nauseating, the track is an exhortation and a relief at regaining a sense of freedom after a global and pandemically troubled period.
Serene and with hints of sweetness, the song begins softly, but quickly grows and reaches its peak. Keeping the softness, the sweetness and adding more notes of freshness, So Amazed is a song with a simple rhythmic-melodic structure and lyrics, but one that can infect the listener. Surprisingly, the song is the first on Little Bit Of Sun to offer a properly motivational storyline. After all, here Semisonic, as well as empowering, proposes a new way of looking at the individual. A look of satisfaction, pride and responsibility. Taking ownership of your desires and valuing the life you have are other important assets found in So Amazed.
Softly contagious in its polite serenity, the song comes with an unquestionably attractive fluidity in which the bass becomes the element to insert a more rational texture to the dense softness of the sound. Only Empathy becomes touching from the moment a careful female backing vocal emerges from Munson's shadows. Lori McKenna enters the scene with an extremely delicate and compassionate vocal performance, making the song transcendentally comforting. With its simple violin waltzes, Only Empathy is a song full of sweetness and whose lyricism is filled with interpretations based on serenity. After all, as its name suggests, the song has the task of showing the viewer that empathy is a feeling, a quality that can soften the heart by making you understand that you can't always solve everything alone. Empathy, here, is an omnipresent character who thirsts to invade the essence of the protagonist, someone who, despite selling himself as benevolent, is ruled by impulses that contradict his ability to identify with others.
With a linearly undulating riff, the guitar is alone for a few moments in the intro until it is joined by the vocal. Forming a curiously waltzing melody, whose movement is reminiscent of that present in the sound of No One, a single by Alicia Keys, Beautiful Sky brings a delicacy that is different from the other songs. Designed on a blues base, it grows in harmony from the second stanza onwards, when the drums, violin, fender rhodes and a collection of wind instruments come together to form a touching and delicately dramatic sound. Exploding into a generous chorus, polite and serene in its respectful melody, Beautiful Sky, more than Keep Me In Motion, proposes a motivation for life, while teaching the listener to see the beauty of living and to understand that bad times are fleeting. Bringing an individual immersed in darkness, Beautiful Sky shows him how to have enough perseverance to stay upright on the course of existence with the help of Jim James’ backing vocals.
It would be too much to say that this was a triumphant return. However, Semisonic proposed a reunion at a time when the world needs calm, comfort, peace and softness to try to reconnect with itself and with simplicity. Little Bit Of Sun arrives, then, not only offering a transcendentally relaxing horizon, but a freshness capable of rebalancing energies and a generosity sufficient to soften hearts.
Based on simple but densely delicate, sweet and fresh melodies, the album doesn't just communicate lyrical plots based on a kind of self-centeredness from the reconnection between Wilson and Munson. It's true that this reverence is also present in the material, but as a small part of its narrative, being present only in The Rope and If You Say So.
For this reason, the highlights fall on motivational proposals, such as those in Grow Your Own, Keep Me In Motion, So Amazed and Beautiful Sky; romantic ones like All The Time and gentle ones like Only Empathy, just to give a few examples. Thus, the album becomes multiple in its intentions, but not varied in its melodic energy.
With this motivational and serene slant, Semisonic made Little Bit Of Sun bring an extensive sense of calm through its melodies. Thus, with the help of Wilson's production, the album comes to represent what is most peaceful in the world through indie rock, boogie-woogie, jazz, blues, pop rock, power pop and folk melodies.
Released on 11/03/2023 via Pleasuresonic Recordings, Little Bit Of Sun is, above all, a light and fresh album. Charming in its sweet, floral and bucolic structures, the material tastes like a reunion and offers extensive sensations of well-being and stimulation. An album designed to equalize the senses and remind us that life is beautiful in its simplistic nuances.
