Reading rebels, Sundara Karma, are on the cusp of releasing debut album, Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect, and with a raft of high-kicking singles to their name already it’s looking like it could be the first big hitter of 2017. We’re not 100% convinced that Oscar (vocals, guitar), Haydn (drums), Ally (guitar) and Dom Cordell (bass) are old enough to put out an album with that kind of title, but with a sound that sits somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire, we’ve got a lot of forgiveness for the four piece indie-rockers.
Release date
Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect will be crowd-surfing its way to record stores throughout the UK in January 2017 with a release date of the 6th. It’ll be available on CD, vinyl LP and digital download with a number of signed and bundle options available from the band’s website directly.
Singles
As Sundara Karma has been building a name for itself ahead of the full album release, it’s managed to put out a fairly significant four singles from Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect. They’re all potential stadium fillers, with a lot of scale and skying highs, and we’ll be surprised if they don’t go on to be a big part of the festival season in 2017.
A Young Understanding is a guitar rock champ with great pace and the kind of chorus that’s going to get a lot of live shows jumping. You could say the same of all of the four singles released to-date, but each one has its own sound. Loveblood brings in a little Japanese inspired guitar, while listening to Olympia you could easily be fooled into thinking they’ve got Win Butler on vocals.
It’s a close contest, but She Said is probably our favourite track with its a foot down blast. You can watch the music video below to see why they’re tipped for big things next year. In fact, you can listen to around 50% of the album on YouTube, as both Flame and Vivienne are on there too, so you don’t need to take our word for the potential of the band.
She Said music video:
Track list:
- A Young Understanding
- Loveblood
- Olympia
- Happy Family
- Flame
- Lose The Feeling
- She Said
- Vivienne
- Be Nobody
- Deep Relief
- Watching From Great Heights
- The Night
UK tour dates
Sundara Karma will be going on a fairly significant UK tour to coincide with the release of its debut album, following a short seven gig trip to the US.
12th January 2017 – O2 Academy, Liverpool
24th January 2017 – O2 Academy, Birmingham
25th January 2017 – Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge
27th January 2017 – O2 Apollo, Manchester
30th January 2017 – O2 Academy, Leeds
31st January 2017 – O2 Academy, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
2nd February 2017 – Liverpool University Guild of Students, Liverpool
3rd February 2017 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
4th February 2017 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
6th February 2017 – Guildhall, Southampton
7th February 2017 – Academy Bristol, Bristol
9th February 2017 – Alexandra Palace, London
10th February 2017 – Alexandra Palace, London
11th February 2017 – The Rainbow, Birmingham
12th February 2017 – Academy Liverpool, Liverpool
13th February 2017 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
15th February 2017 – Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
16th February 2017 – Albert Hall, Manchester
17th February 2017 – The Garage, Glasgow
18th February 2017 – Leeds University, Leeds
19th February 2017 – 3sixty Bar, Reading
20th February 2017 – O2 Academy, Leicester
22nd February 2017 – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
23rd February 2017 – Cardiff University, Cardiff
24th February 2017 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
First impressions
Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect is shaping up to be a big something release in 2017. The tracks already released tuck in under your thick set gusset and hoists you up into the bleak clouds of a normal day to show you that there’s a different angle on stuff. If the rest of the album follows suit then Sundara Karma are going to be mahussive next year.
