Welcome once again to The Sound Scoop. I am very excited about the next couple of reviews this year because they will hold a very important purpose starting this week…
I am so grateful and excited that I will be attending the “All Things Go” Music Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion this September! For this reason, the artists that I will be reviewing will be those who will attend this event. There are some that I have also reviewed previously (so exciting!) and I hope to review this event after I come back from it and tell you all what it was like to hear so many amazing artists live.
I have 36 artists to review, so let’s get started.
This week’s artist is The Japanese House with her song Sunshine Baby
Amber Bain, a.k.a. The Japanse House is a singer-songwriter from Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom under the genre of Indie pop, who has been releasing music since 2015, with her debut EP Pools to Bathe In. Her very unique artist name holds inspiration from a cottage where she and her family vacationed when she was a child, in Cornwall, England.
She has described her music to be “warm, [with] dream-pop sounds that wash over the listener like you’re standing in the ocean getting taken over by the waves”. And I completely agree with this! especially with the song I chose for this week, which I believe captures this essence that radiates from her music.
Sunshine Baby is the song I chose, which was co-produced by Aber, with The 1975’s George Daniel and Chloe Kraemer and has The 1975’s Matty Healy’s vocals.
Interestingly enough, the title of this song is the nickname of her dog!
“I would call my ex and my dog my ‘sunshine babies’. My dog is obsessed with the sun and my ex are the same—probably some of the best moments of our relationship were just lying on the beach in Margate”
But the lyrics hold a much more bittersweet meaning… As we read the lyrics, we dive into feelings of wanting, being unsure, thinking deeply, and seeking comfort and understanding in connections and life moments. It also shows feeling exposed and hoping for things to get better during tough times, all this, concerning her past romance, its ending, and how she has moved on.
This song has recently been a staple in my playlist and I had never taken the time to see how deep the lyrics truly were, I was too stuck in Ambers's soothing voice, but when learning about what she means in this song, I can appreciate how her voice accentuate the lyrics and how they express how difficult this moment in relationships were for her.
Favorite Verse
“I miss my dog and I miss falling in love
I miss the feeling that you get when someone fits just like a glove
I can't help but question, maybe this isn't helping
Putting off the end 'cause, in the end, it always does”
This year she released her tiny desk, check it out!
I hope you all can take some time to listen to Sunshine Baby and other of Amber’s tracks!
(quick reminder that the official Sound Scoop playlist is on my About page!)
See you next time,
Lari :)