Review - 'Champagne Taste' - Sunflower Bean

Released 28th January 2025

Lucky Number Music Limited

I was listening to Chris Hawkins, in for Craig Charles, on BBC Radio 6 Music for the first time in a while on my way home from work last week and heard an interview with an artist that I’ve never heard of, which, incidentally, is one of my favourite things that can happen randomly.

The artist was lead singer, Julia Cumming, of the band Sunflower Bean, a 3-piece band coming out of Brooklyn, NY. Professional pigeon-holers have them down as indie-rock, so we’ll go with that for now. Julia herself compared the band’s sound to i-D as “Neo-psychedelia for the digital age, but now we’ve just been calling it ‘Night Music’”, however in the interview I heard, they described the sound of this new single is more “Alice in Chains meets Fleetwood Mac”.

Sunflower Bean formed in 2013, emerging out of Brooklyn’s thriving ‘DIY’ music scene. The first show the band ever played was under the pseudonym ‘Champagne Taste’ as the band were not ready to bring ‘Sunflower Bean’ to the forefront. Since then, they have used this alias as a litmus test for new material which is heavier and more guitar driven than their early work. Which explains why this track is named as such.

From the first chord of the riff, this track everything you want it to be. Catchy, heavy and full of nods to the earlier comparisons Julia made. The lyrics tell a story of a lust for life, getting out into the City that never sleeps and letting loose — ‘Hey babe, let’s go out tonight, I want to spend ten thousand large, It’s Mortal Primetime’. Long sweeping, ‘Pearl Jam’ style guitar pitch bends are smothered in vocals reminiscent of Beth Ditto of ‘Gossip’.

This track is the first single from their forthcoming album ‘Mortal Primetime’, the band’s fourth studio album, which is released on April 25th 2025. You can pre-save it wherever you listen to your music now. I certainly have.

The band are currently on tour with Cage The Elephant in the UK & Europe from 13th-18th February 2025, but following this they kick off their headline tour, with the new album, across Europe and North America in London on 27th February at George Tavern. You can also listen back to the full show with Chris Hawkins on BBS Sounds.