Sweeping Promises have released their new album Good Living Is Coming For You and an unpolished gem that feels like it has been discovered in the vaults of a now-defunct new wave label. It’s got grit and hiss in it’s grooves and delivers taught 3-minutes anthems that could have been bounced down on a TASCAM four track.
Sweeping Promises are Ohio-based Lira Mondal (bass) and Caufield Schnug (guitar, drums) and this album follows on from their 2020 tour de force Hunger for a Way Out. However, the global pandemic, and financial hardship meant they had to uproot their lives and move in with family in Texas. 50 demos later they ended up in Kansas with home and studio under one roof and set to work on Good Living…
Instantly catchy and propulsive from the opening track ‘Eraser’, the album makes you feel like sitting still is a sin. This is close quarters combat with angle grinder bass and stiletto sharp guitar stabs going up against drums that syncopate as much as they pack a punch. The title track is a series of menacing slaps, ‘Connoisseur Stomp’ is the band X reborn, ‘Walk In Place’ is an alt-disco banger, and ‘You Shatter’ mines urgency and unearths a sparkling diamond tune. On and on through ‘Petit Four’, ‘Can’t Hide It’, ‘Throw The Dice’ and ‘Ideal No’ the band lurch, duck, dodge, elbow and land body blows and kisses in equal measure.
Like and un-synthesised DEVO or a reanimated Rezillos, Sweeping Promises make edgy-beautiful music. The playing can be coruscating, but the tunes and harmonies are honey sweet and captivating. There is angular-modern style phasing with nostalgia that could make it New-New Wave or Punk-Motown but it’s a spiky delight from start to finish.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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