Anna Hears... Sun Culture

Sun Culture's eponymous debut album has been described as 'the perfect soundtrack to usher in the sunshine and warmer weather' (available free here). Considering the band's name, this sunshine-y nature is far from surprising, but it's the kind of blue-skies-from-here-on-out attitude that doesn't end up being slightly cloying when the clouds inevitably roll in on the British spring, in the way that 'summer tunes' often do. Rather than written for summer, they seem like they've been written with the memory of summer in mind, and are not unconvincingly happy. The happiness in the tracks is bolstered by the upbeat nature of the music, with the right amount of quasi-nostalgia in the lyrics to prevent the summer feelings becoming teeth-achingly sweet.