“Too Young to Burn”
from the album Tomorrow is Alright
2010
iTunes
Do you remember being seventeen, and in love? While wearing a cotton dress and playing with dandelions in a field? You were twisting your limp blond curls, holding hands with your gender-ambiguous boyfriend who wore pointy shoes and shorts above his knees. You were starring in a Sofia Coppola film.
Waxing wistful, Sonny & the Sunsets’ new release Tomorrow is Alright lightly eulogizes that fleeting springtime, when you still lived hours away from the city and were young and beautiful and chaste and sheeee-it.
It’s a fresh wave of nouveau-nostalgic innocence embodied in Tomorrow, a product of Sonny Smith and an evolving troupe of musicians. The San Francisco-based band’s new album is one of longing, unmarked by painful recollections of a simpler time, impressed instead with a wide-eyed yearning. Its sentimentality defies era-specificity, echoing music that crosses from ’50s rock and roll to garage blues to something reminiscent of the Beach Boys’ harmonious whine.
The first and strongest track, “Too Young to Burn,” expresses an experience unmarred by jaded sobriety; instead, here, the band sings with a clarity that speaks to an understanding of the past. “I’m older now,” sings Sonny. “I say it’s alright / every tear rolling down / is a lesson learned.” Looking back in Tomorrow isn’t a source of regret; instead, it’s soaked in sweet recollection.
The simplicity of Tomorrow is in its still-youthful positivity, evoking a summer-dream montage. It’s whimsical, with lyrics that tell long delirious stories, though the text remains uncomplicated and direct. It’s a coming-of-age album from those who are already of age, but still remember what it was like back then — with the same aching wonder.