Album Review: Trophy Eyes - Suicide and Sunshine
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Fresh off the stage at Slam Dunk Festival, Australian alternative/ indie Punks, Trophy Eyes drop album number four, marking a decade since their formation. As the title suggests, the record deals with the dualities of life and the human experience, the light and the dark, the triumph and the tragedy; and how to treat these two imposters just the same.
In some ways, listening to Suicide and Sunshine is an uncomfortable experience as it is essentially vocalist John Floreani’s soul laid bare. The additional material that accompanied the album speaks of the inspiration behind this particular record, coming as it does, five-years after The American Dream.
At the heart of Suicide and Sunshine are the tracks Buden and Sean, the former being a brief passage in which we find someone lying on a bathroom floor; the following Sean is the story of John’s friend and an unfiltered look at a moment in time when a life ended, and others changed forever. It is from this song that the record gets its title and, though a simple progression musically, made of picked strings for the most part, it is a complex and heartbreaking exploration of soul in turmoil after hearing the news.
Whilst not strictly a concept album Suicide and Sunshine is bound by the theme of life and death and, in many ways, the role of the artist in summing this up. Ideas for either suicide or murder arise in many songs: Life in Slow Motion considers the temporary nature of existence through a clean guitar and skipping drum; Sweet Soft Sound is an acoustic number in which the image of a white bathroom appears again; and Stay Here blends a more pop sensibility with a frightening contemplation.
Deep at the core of the album is the catharsis John Floreani needs. Whether that be the possibility of redemption in Blue Eyed Boy’s bouncing bass and up tempo progression; or highly personal Runaway Come Home, with its juxtaposition of gentle waves and explosive moments, reflecting the troubled relationship with his mother; or the rumbling bass of the aggressive People Like You, which looks at alienation from an economic point of view. The mantra of the song: “dying’s cheaper than growing older” is a foul indictment of the world in which we live and the outro of The Pogues’ Dirty Ol’ Town fits the mood precisely.
It's not all doom and gloom though, as Trophy Eyes don’t shy away from mixing it up a bit. What Hurts the Most? is a hook-laden tune, My Inheritance plays around with electronica before launching into a fierce finale. For the Metalheads among you, Kill opens with a gothic, Marilyn Manson inspired introduction, infused with pain and self-loathing but ready to soar; while the biggest shock came from the massive metallic grooves of OMW, utterly at odds with the bulk of the rest of the album.
Epilogue – obviously – closes out the record with John contemplating the past ten years and wishing the fans could see themselves through his eyes. It is here that the album’s frequent Frank Turner moments come most prominently to the fore.
Clearly, Trophy Eyes are not releasing the heaviest musical record of the year, it’s just not in their wheelhouse, but you might find Suicide and Sunshine to be one of the most thematically challenging albums of 2023. The four lads are a tight a musical unit as their time together suggests and for those in want of something a little different, you’d be well placed to give this one a chance.
