Sunday Morning: Junky Don’t Care/Explain The World – Single Review

Sunday Morning: Junky Don’t Care | Explain The World

(Self-released)

DL | Stream

Out Now

Sunday Morning emerge from the depths of Vancouver with their new single, Junky Don’t Care, a cover of a song from Canadian punk legend Art Bergmann. With its emotive narrative and the intensity of the performance, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s an outtake from a Nick Cave album. Ian Corbridge finds out that there is plenty more from where this comes from.

If you feel the need to challenge your sonic and emotional spectrum, then look no further than Sunday Morning’s creator and frontman Bruce Wilson who has been working on their new album deep in the heart of Vancouver. Their new single, Junky Don’t Care, provides a first glimpse of what may lie ahead. Whilst this lead song is a cover of a punk classic from Canada’s very own Art Bergmann, it’s a complete reimagination of the song which is typical of the creative approach taken by Bruce in his own songwriting.

Opening with a real sense of drama and intensity, this feeling never really lets up as Bruce launches into his Nick Cave-style vocal delivery over a slow, subdued and almost dreamy backdrop. From beginning to end, Junky Don’t Care is a masterful take which portrays a heady cocktail of power, sensitivity and melancholic sadness, with an endearing complexity in its emotional turbulence which is enhanced by Emily Bach’s violin.

Art Bergmann is an artist who has clearly provided much inspiration for Bruce through his poetic lyrics and distinct vocals and this single provides a very fitting tribute in so many ways. The video for the song was provided by RD Cane who has collaborated with Art previously and who was therefore able to produce a gritty piece of visual art that was able to capture the real essence of the song.

The single is backed by self-penned Explain The World which has a much harder edge to the sound, being dominated by shimmering guitar rhythms and Dandy Warhol’s style soundscapes. Whilst the inspiration for the song came from a challenge to write a song that explained the world, there was an acceptance from Bruce that it was far too big a task to achieve through one song as he explains that he “kept coming back to the transformational elements of life that fill me with a boundless sense of love and wonder”.

Hailing from the Florida panhandle and absorbing the likes of the Velvet Underground and the Beatles in his formative years, Bruce’s prolific art and music career took him through New York and Detroit before capitulating in a heroin-induced haze, with no certainty over his future. As the subsequent rehabilitation process really took hold in Massachusetts before he moved on to Vancouver, the creative force that morphed into Sunday Morning’s first album evolved through an abstract range of influences which continue to filter through even now.

Photo Credit: Jessicka Yliruusi

Alongside Bruce on vocals and keyboards, the core of Sunday Morning comprises producer Felix Fung on guitar and Max Sample on bass and keyboards. Bruce’s songs are built around short poetic vignettes that are drawn from personal experiences, following narrative threads which appear to be currently steering more towards mortality.

Sunday Morning’s self-titled debut album was released in 2016 to widespread critical acclaim. It’s a powerful bunch of heartfelt songs about love and loss, coloured with deep shades of Nick Cave, with more than a hint of many other classic influences of the likes of Bowie, Iggy, Springsteen, and Ian Hunter if you listen closely enough. It’s an album that may have passed many of us by at the time, including myself, but which I now strongly encourage you to track down. This was followed in 2020 by the Consequence Of Love EP which is full of equally complex layers.

The current focus for Sunday Morning is to complete writing and recording the new album for release in the Autumn of 2023, with a series of singles to precede that. Bruce is also currently looking for a space to do a large multimedia show/installation this coming summer that runs parallel with the new album’s theme of mortality. Definitely something to look out for in the New Year.

You can buy the single and previous releases here.

You can find Sunday Morning on Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp and their website.

~

All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile.

Source: louderthanwar.com