“Good Living is Coming For You” by Sweeping Promises
A standout post-punk album with catchiness to spare.
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Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!
Today’s music pick is a standout post-punk album with an array of effortlessly catchy, lo-fi hooks to spare.
Genre: Alternative, Post-Punk
Label: Feel It
Release Date: June 30, 2023
Vibe: 😃
Allegedly recorded using a single microphone in a matter of weeks, Good Living is Coming For You is a deliciously grimy piece of work. It takes the DIY aesthetic of partners Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug’s first release as Sweeping Promises, 2020’s Hunger for a Way Out, stretches it to its cavernous extremities. A big part of that refining process was the home studio they purchased with their Feel It label advance in Lawrence, Kansas—mainly for the acoustics. But, underneath its lo-fi shell, this album has far more in common with pop-rock and new wave luminaries like the B-52’s, the Go-Gos, and Mazzy Star, favoring catchy hooks and singalong choruses instead of an all-out sludge fest. The result is a post-punk record with far more crossover appeal than you might imagine.
In that vein, another underrated aspect of Good Living is the precise, often terse songwriting from Mondal and Schnug. The duo tackles topics like the suffocating nature of materialism on the title track (" Wave after wave/Gonna come break the surface/This interior's designed to make you nervous”) and the effects of pervasive gentrification seen across North America on “Can’t Hide It.” There are also a plethora of food metaphors thrown in for good measure, especially in the aptly titled “Connoisseur of Salt,” where Mondal seethes. “You’re filling up your cabinets/With spices and salts to cover up the bitter taste.” As per an interview they did for this record’s promotional material, Sweeping Promises demanded complete creative control over their work from their label, and it shows. This is unabashedly idiosyncratic work, and that’s what helps it carve out a distinct voice in what has become a crowded art-rock and post-rock marketplace this year.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈