Sunflower Bean is one of the underrated Anglo-Saxon indie-rock bands of the last decade. Perhaps because of the eclectic nature of their repertoire, which has evoked the sound of the Cardigans (‘Moment in the Sun’) and Led Zeppelin (‘Champagne Taste’), the New York group led by Julia Cumming has never achieved the recognition that similar bands such as Wolf Alice or The Last Dinner Party have enjoyed.
In any case, Sunflower Bean has written timeless songs like ‘I Was a Fool’ or the exquisite ‘Easier Said’, and that timeless component also inspires ‘My Life’, Julia Cumming’s first solo single. Cumming debuts alone and does so evoking the classic sound of the Brill Building and that of idols such as Carole King, Brian Wilson or Carly Simon.
King’s signature is especially noticeable in the composition of ‘My Life’, a ballad with piano, acoustic guitar, drums and strings that points to the classicism of the seventies. Cumming’s voice is ideal to interpret this melodious piece of classic pop, while the lyrics rebel against the male gaze, claiming one’s independence. “I don’t sing this to impress you, I didn’t put on these clothes to undress you, I don’t need you to define me or approve of what’s in me,” Cumming sings.
That ‘My Life’ is the declaration of intentions of an artist who ventures alone is clear from the beginning of the song, when Julia intones “I sing these words for myself, to hear the sound, I let them vibrate and drown out your presence.” The chorus “I sing to everyone I love, I sing to the stars in the sky” is beautiful.
Cumming has delved into the meaning of ‘My Life’ and his album, explaining that “we all try to fit into the roles that other people impose on us, or that we impose on ourselves, in the hope of being accepted.” Cumming claims that it presents the “quintessential anti-cool album” and that he wrote it “for the misfits and for girls like me who in high school never fit into a perfectly defined box.” And he adds: «I want this album to be a place where those girls can find comfort. “You don’t have to be who others want you to be to be enough.”
‘My Life’, on the other hand, is presented with an attractive video clip directed by British filmmaker Edgar Wright, director of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) or ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ (2010).
