There were two ways I was expecting Sun Coming Down to go, given that it was released little more than a year after Ought’s excellent debut album, More Than Any Other Day. It could either draw from the same creative well, building on the catchy songwriting and witty and emotionally earnest lyrics of the debut, or it could try to forge a brand new identity, dipping its toes into uncharted territory. I was not terribly optimistic this route would yield fully formed songs, and Sun Coming Down certainly doesn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Sun Coming Down is a bad album. Rather, it’s an incredibly uneven one. Ought are taking a page from The Fall here, writing long, repetitious verses that often have no chord progression at all. Tim Beeler Darcy, Ought’s vocalist/guitarist, takes on the Mark E. Smith’s role, riding on his charisma as a front man. On paper, this sounds really fantastic — More Than Any Other Day is, above all other things, a really charming album. And on nearly every song on Sun Coming Down, there’s a moment where you truly believe in what Ought’s doing — it could have been a really strong album. But there are just as many moments where I just don’t follow.
Take the opener, “Men for Miles,” one of my favorite songs on the album. I love the sing-songy quality to Darcy’s vocal melody, and how he switches from being coy to confident to sarcastic and back from line to line. When I say Ought have a ton of charisma, this is what I’m referencing. Ben Stidworthy’s bass line is bouncy and almost danceable, and I love how, in the chorus, the instrumentation falls away, leaving Darcy backed only with a roll from the toms onto the snare from drummer Tim Keen. Despite this sense of adventure, my first thought upon first listen was, “Aaaggghh what the hell is this guitar?” It’s like Ought’s producer sat on the sound board, screwed up all the levels, and never fixed it.
Truth is, nearly every song on Sun Coming Down is this muddle of good and bad: “Passionate Turn” kind of bumbles out of the gates before snapping into a really satisfactory chorus; “On the Line” has way too loose of an instrumental, but has a swaggering, confident vocal performance from Darcy; the title track builds a wall of scratching guitar noises, and I get that they want to be abrasive and uncomfortable, but it just doesn’t work. Sun Coming Down’s lyrics, which hit on themes of dissatisfaction and desire for more genuine interaction, are also hit-or-miss. This comes across well on the album’s one outstanding song, “Beautiful Blue Sky,” where Darcy repeats small talk phrases like “Beautiful weather today,” “Fancy seeing you here” and “How’s the family?” before declaring those interactions are all that we have. It’s an absurd moment, and its humor is one of Ought’s greatest strengths. But then there are also songs like “Celebration,” that are too snarky — we get it dude, you don’t like parties. More Than Any Other Day always seems to pair these sarcastic moments with some truly tender, heartfelt lines, but Sun Coming Down leaves out the latter.
There is a ton of potential in Sun Coming Down. Ought has a unique voice, one that takes their post-punk influences and puts its own spin on it. I appreciate that the band took more chances on this record, but I don’t think the execution is there. And maybe the excellence of More Than Any Other Day is clouding my judgment here — records as fully formed as Ought’s debut are rare. Sun Coming Down reminds me that Ought are still a young band and they’re still figuring it all out. Sun Coming Down isn’t bad, but it’s not great either.