{{{Sunset}}} – The Glowing City (2008)

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Earlier this year , Sunset released a really great record called Bright Blue Dream, an album that I whole heartedly planned on sitting on until the later in the year lists come out, and it could be my super cool “look how much bullshit I download, I actually found something amazing” secret pick… and then something really amazing happened. Sunset released another album, The Glowing City, and it’s even better than Bright Blue Dream. Sunset is a project from Bill Baird, formerly in the nearly-the-next-big-thing Austin band Sound Team. The Glowing City feels like both a crazy concept album about a muse, known throughout as Sandy, and as an incredible collection of pop songs. It comes in at 18 tracks which completely fill the full 80 minutes and seamlessly treads tons of ground sonically. Highlights include opener ‘Zombies’, which gets us rolling on this “Sandy obsession” stuff, and ‘Dreams of Sandy’ which has some of my favorite lyrics – your face it comes in flashes/in soft drops of my lashes/your skin so pale with arms so frail/you're pure like snow, like ashes. Damn, son. And - from the sands of creation/bursting through the foam, I'm goin' home - sounds almost Funeral-era Win Butler-esque. ‘Dear Friend (Failing Domino)’ turns into a beautiful, pleading sing along. And then to help top it all off, Sandy actually shows up in 'When Perfect Flames Expire'. I say this all the time, but I’ve become more and more obsessed with this record the more I listen to it, and I really encourage you to check out these tracks. omahype