Listening to The Sugars, it’s hard to believe they’re from Leeds. Their dark and deadly whirlwinds of dirty rock ‘n’ roll and menacing blasts of Blues don’t sound as though they could have emanated from anywhere in Yorkshire, but they have.
Opening with the murderously intense ‘Black Friday,’ their no-holds-barred introduction to their music is nothing if not exhilarating, before their ‘Unnamed Duet’ sounds as though The Kills have joined forces with The White Stripes for the ultimate showdown, with frontman Matt Bolton and bassist/ vocalist Anna Greenaway balling out their hearts to one another.
The upbeat ‘Monsters’ gives way to ‘Mama,’ another tune sung by Anna in which she bemoans how she never seems to find Mr. Right: ‘I learnt my lesson with a shattered heart, whilst holding hands in dirty bars.’ Indeed, just as the music pierces the heart, the lyrics wield the potential to savagely smother then shred it.
‘Gossip’ stampedes in fine style, while ‘Way To My Heart’ is dominated by Anna’s bold bass-line. The hard-edged ‘Seamstress’ then takes hold, before final track ‘You Better Go’ proves to be the most beautiful cut of all on the eleven-track album, coming complete with subtle bursts of trumpet, violin, cello and sousaphone.
Brimful of retro kitsch fetishes, The Sugars’ music spectacularly encompasses a myriad of influences from over the past fifty years, and while Matt’s voice might remind some folk of Edwyn Collins or Richard Hawley, rest assured that The Sugars are one of the coolest, hardest-working and original bands around right now - and one spoonful of their material is never enough.
