Sundays in the South is a compact EP where listeners can expect a range of complex emotions fleshed out through soft rock ballads.
It’s the group’s debut EP and features five tracks for a total runtime of just over 16 minutes.
Overall, it’s a very respectable project that is the culmination of the following the group has amassed over the course of the pandemic since their first release in early 2019.
The Thing with Feathers is a group based out of Nashville, Tennessee, and is made up of members David Welcsh (vocals), Sean Carroll (bass), Alex Hendricks (guitar), and Chris Rousell (drums).
The group credits Coldplay, The 1975, and The Strokes as their main inspirations via their bio on Spotify.
The project features a lot of powerful, reflective lyrics that touch on bad dates, unstable relationships, and wanting something even though it’s unhealthy for you.
All are quite relatable topics and the group backs them up with soft rock ballads. It’s the kind of music that would be best listened to on a summer evening drive with the windows down.
However, as most of the tracks have already been released, it is a bit difficult to take the project as a cohesive piece of work. It feels more like a collection of singles.
The reason for the rating comes mostly from a lack of originality. Most songs have the same structure and it feels like there was an attempt to tell a story here but there simply wasn’t enough content for me as a listener to fully understand what is going on. As such, I’m left wondering whether or not a resolution to the issues presented has been reached.
That said, there’s a great mix of flowing vocals, relaxing instrument breaks, and intriguing lyrics here.
The group does well to make their songs easy to sing along to and Welcsh’s vocals are quite pleasant overall. It’s great music to think to and they’re definitely worth checking out.