Ought - Sun’s Coming Down

Constellation

September 18th, 2015.

A still criminally lesser known contemporary Post-Punk masterpiece, Ought's Sun's Coming Down, turns 10. The sophomore and standout project from Montreal's Ought has set an idiosyncratic standard in the time between it's release and present day. The best of the best defy the rules and set new ones. Doesn't it just bring a tear to your eye?

Sun's Coming Down is awkward enough to continually feed the needy music head, and catchy enough to entertain the surface level listener - if they're listening. The quirks are unrepeatable and of the moment. Ought's essence, captured like lightning in a bottle. The raw beauty which life serves you. Hard to stomach. Unfiltered, it is what it is. Smack-bang centered; unavoidable; unbreakable. The high watermark of civilization: driving a truck filled with everything. 

The album morphs into, and through, a myriad of influences: This Heat, The Strokes, Pavement, Bob Dylan, the list goes on. It sounds like everything, and nothing like anything, all at the same time. Neither here nor there, Tim Darcy, Ought's manic frontman, slides on slippery solliloquies with many a quotable abstraction. He's an unusual character, to say the least. Full of featureless strangers up on ridges, Sun's Coming Down is a shape-shifting slice of frenzied, post-punk-y, noisy, danceably drastic excellence. An enigma of the music world, moments of absolute clarity shine on through. The "I am mobile, I am modern" chorus of 'Passionate Turn' being one of said moments. "In disgrace, I'm a distance from fate and I'm losing my face."

Alien in many ways, and close to home in many others, Sun's Coming Down bridges the gap between what is and what could be. The gap is as wide as it is weird. 

"Entire families are waiting in line, it's a little bit strange."

Laced with a sanctimonious amount of sonic earworms, Sun's Coming Down pampers the listeners ears with dissonant absurdities, feral feats and absolute left of centre heat. Perfect rooms have never been so far away, and that's alright. 

'Beautiful Blue Sky' is the 21st Centuries answer to The Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime'. A sing-song for the everyman:

How's the family?

How's your health been?

Fancy seeing you here! 

Beautiful weather today...

How's the church, how's the job?

A common interest/courtesy for the fellow man, no matter how uninterested one may be in the answer. These seeming trivialities are among the foundations of society. 

"With the light coming down over your shoulders, what is that sensation?"

My neighbour caught the sun, it's about the size of a beachball - holdable in human hands. It would be advisable to pass on such an opportunity if sunburn's not your thing. Blisters aren't too sweet to the touch. 

"That's a very astute observation, don't you say?"

Ought would break up in November of 2021. Two members of the band, Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy, would go on to form Cola. 

"I'm no longer afraid to die, cos that is all that I have left. And I'm no longer afraid to dance tonight, cos that is all that I have left. YES."