By Emily Marshman
Recommended Tracks: Away We Go, Howling at the Sun, Darkness Arrives (And Departs)
The return of Bad Suns has been long-awaited because, even though their last full-length was released in 2016, it feels like ages since we’ve heard something new from the Los Angeles-based four piece. Mystic Truth found its name after frontman Christo Bowman visited the Tate Modern in London while on tour there, from a 1967 piece by artist Bruce Nauman.
We’re living in a time of violence – we’re witnessing the death of our planet and of humanity alongside it – which is enough to affect anyone, especially those with a voice and a platform. The aim of this album is to find and to unearth simple pleasure among all this chaos.
This album is similar enough sonically to both the band’s previous albums – reliant on synths and on Bowman’s unique vocals – although Mystic Truth itself is much slower than Disappear Here and much sharper than Language and Perspective. The only way to describe it is that the band has come into their sound; they’ve been honing their individual style since they broke onto the scene with the release of smash hit single “Cardiac Arrest” in 2013. This most recent release has taken their debut and their sophomore, forced them together, toned down the bass and the angst, and found itself full of love.
One of the rosiest songs on the album is “One Magic Moment,” which, in three minutes and thirty-seven seconds, summarizes that earlier-mentioned message of the whole album – simple pleasure, most commonly found in the eyes and the heart of the person you love the most. My personal favorite on the album is “A Miracle, A Mile Away,” the third track, a song about how your joy won’t always be directly in front of you, and how sometimes you have to go looking for it, but it’s the bassline that captured me initially, not the lyrics.
Bad Suns is known for small, short, repetitive stanzas, full of meaning but catchy nonetheless, and this album is certainly packed with songs just like that. I am not, however, suggesting that this is a bad thing; it’s what makes a Bad Suns song so recognizable. Bowman isn’t breathy, and neither are his lyrics. “Love By Mistake” is one track in which this is particularly evident.
One motif that is clear throughout Mystic Truth is love: romantic love, platonic love, loving your life, your work, your world. Nauman’s piece reads, “The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths,” and Bad Suns has done that with this album.
They are currently on a headlining run, out until the middle of May, and will be playing Lollapalooza fest in Chicago this summer, as well. They can be found on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and their website.
