Suburban Living - "How To Be Human"
Words by Zach Romano.
Philadelphia shoegazers Suburban Living have returned from a three-year album hiatus with How to Be Human, released today on Egghunt Records. The setbacks that had to be overcome for this record to see the light of day include your standard-issue COVID delay – the album was originally planned for a May release - but that’s not nearly all: the band had to get past a devastating New Year’s Eve house fire, lost demos, a near-fatal car crash, and a Fishtown derelict mourning a recently deceased (possibly murdered) pet boa constrictor. Seriously. It’s a wild story, but it wouldn’t matter if the album wasn’t worth the wait. Thankfully, it rules.
After six months of isolation for most of us, a little reminder of how to be human is sorely needed. Songwriter and frontman Wesley Bunch presents a crash course through these nine songs, tackling the spectrum from seclusion and loneliness to togetherness and belonging. Even though How to Be Human is a remarkably consistent record, it’s easy to get stuck on the first three tracks. Opener “Falling Water” establishes the band’s sound palette, with drums synced with distorted bass, washes of synth, and twinkling guitar lines working together in a way that recalls The Cure’s mid-period. “Falling Water” is a sonically and lyrically dark song: “I’ve gotta get away from here…Take me away from me” Bunch sings. The moodiness quickly gives way on the anthemic “Main Street,” which makes Suburban Living’s emotional and sonic range clear. “Indigo Kids” takes the album title literally as it obliquely tells the story of Boriska Kipriyanovich, a Russian child prodigy who believes he led a previous life on Mars.
Each Suburban Living song can be viewed as a deep pool with a surface of glassy synthesizer and often undistorted guitar, under which bass and drums rumble and hum. Bunch’s vocals, which bring to mind a more nasal Robert Smith, serve as the bridge between the chugging lower layer and shimmering water level. This dynamic is clearest on “Dirt,” where the bass carries the melody and Bunch describes the liberation of no longer caring that someone treated you like shit in the past. The most thrilling moments on the record are when the layers crash together, like they do in the outro of “Video Love.”
How to Be Human is available on limited edition green vinyl at select independent record stores and on standard black vinyl via Egghunt Records. You can also stream it on your favorite platform.
Stay tuned, as Wesley Bunch of Suburban Living is next week’s guest on the Look At My Records! podcast. Tune in to get the full lowdown on How to Be Human, including the boa constrictor story, and to hear which songs he picked from Tom’s record collection.
Photo by Kelly Cammarata
