By – Jackie Lo

If you like: Alex G, Duster, Sigur Ros, The Glands, Mount Eerie

Sunnsetter, from Norfolk County, Ontario, is the long-running solo project from producer and mixing/mastering engineer Andrew McLeod (of Zoon & Obiigizi). The LP “Heaven Hang Over Me” releases today on Paper Bag Records whose title comes from a misheard Nirvana lyric from In Utero’s “Dumb” when Cobain sings “Have a hangover now”, McLeod heard “Heaven hang over now”. I discovered this project with the track “i feel everything” and played it on my new music show in October. I immediately loved the song as it sounded as if The Glands were singing with Sigur Ros. So, in true form, I needed to listen to the rest of this album and share it with you all.

The album is incredibly introspective. With McLeod playing and recording everything themself, I think an artist can get even more personal and raw. No one is watching you in the vocal booth and you are your own producer. So, whatever feels natural and pure makes the cut. They battle anxiety in the opening track “Fear it comes in waves”, with choice guitar bends that tug at my love of shoegaze, and again in “I want to live (the body is a place of rest)” that opens with the line screamed “I won’t lie to myself”. I won’t lie. It helped my anxiety from this last week too.

“Try Again” is reminiscent of a lost Remy Zero track. With a catchy melody it opens with, “Without trying to overstate it. Can’t help notice what everything is. Even when there is no one listening. They will try to control until you never want to go back.”  I kept starting this song over again to hear that opening line. It made my darkened heart ache and feel a little more alive.  “Take a shot” is another favorite on the album with overdriven vocals that signal the turmoil covered in the lyrics “If I was to die, well it’s all inside. If I wasn’t ready, well you know I tried. If I was to go, well you know it’s time” that feels like it builds so it can resolve with the next track (and my favorite on the album), “i feel everything”.

This week hasn’t been the most enjoyable for Americans that care about basic human rights, for women fighting for body autonomy, for the LGBTQ community and allies, and for anyone that cares about the safety of our future. I’m for all of these things, hence my mentions above of anxiety and darkened hearts. But my refuge has always been music and “Heaven Hang Over Me” came at just the right time.