Hmm, what does one say about the world on a dreary Bank Holiday Sunday evening after getting up at 6 pm?! I guess we’ll just have to see. But, here I am, suffering something of a low-mood attack and considering falling off the sobriety wagon. Nothing’s happened in my life to cause these feelings, mind you. Quite the opposite. In fact, it’s been quiet as a mouse this past week. That, however, is not enough to stem the tide of mental illness, so I find myself scurrying to put up my emotional fortifications and find something to distract my descent into existential turmoil.
“Hey, Jim, why don’t you review that new Say Sue Me release?!”, came a quiet voice form inside.
“Nah, I don’t feel like writing today. Or any day, for that matter!” I said, in an show of self-pitying defiance.
“Well, just start writing about yourself and how you’re feeling, then see where you go from there, huh?” Said the voice again, before scurrying away to form more things for me to worry unnecessarily about.
And that’s where you now find me.
During a voyage of intentional musical discovery, I was looking around the streaming service of my choice for unfamiliar indie bands from around the world. Since the rise of angry arm chair politics on social media over the past decade, I’ve found myself utterly sick of hearing the English language. I now only physically leave my home once a month to pick up medication; I don’t watch television; and the only films or television shows I do watch are generally from the pre-2010s. My only allowances are a YouTube channel and a couple of podcasts.
There.
My appreciation of music has very much hit same issue. I struggle to listen to all the stuff I’ve been into over the past 20 years of my rock education, sticking mainly to Dutch power-pop, instrumental jazz, noise rock, or traditional music. And East Asian indie. I can’t remember now whether I discovered Say Sue Me through a such-themed playlist or a dream pop (nee shoegazing) playlist, but they grabbed me straight away.
The East Asians, and I type this paragraph while desperately trying not to put my politically correct foot in it, seem very skilled at taking elements of western culture and just making them better. Their songwriting is tighter, their playing has more depth, their recording has greater ingenuity, and dammit if they don’t work their arses off! Western rock bands moodily eek out maybe a couple of albums a decade, at most, while I’m now discovering the Asians usually crank out masterpiece after masterpiece once a year or so.
Well, some of their bands do, as the South Korean subject of this post takes a little more time and seems to have the western “one album every 4 years” approach.
So, yes, Say Sue Me has released three studio albums since 2014, along with a bunch of great singles and EPs that feature enough separate material to comfortably fill up a double album, with me coming across them just after their third album - the truly wonderful The Last Thing Left.
I’ve gone into this enough on previous posts, so I wont labour the point here, but 2022 was the year my best friend died, with Say Sue Me, along with The Vaccines, very much becoming the soundtrack to my grief. Not for any particular reason, of course, they were simple bands I had started listening to around that period. In fact, every time something new by Say Sue Me comes out, I think to myself: “Hey, I should really recommend this to my best fr… oh wait, I can’t”.
Then I get understandably upset.
In preparation for writing this post, I’ve been listening back to all of Say Sue Me’s previous releases, with The Last Thing Left assumedly being the most difficult listen. My neighbours will have hard me drunkenly singing out loud to the songs “Around You”, “No Real Place”, and “Photo of You” many times over the past three years, before ultimately descending into miserable sobbing. But it wasn’t an emotional chore listening back to The Last Thing Left, as there’s a reason why I fell in love with Say Sue Me in the first place.
Their songs are catchy, full of medley, and truly, truly miserable in the best sense of the word.
It’s indie music, basically.
So, here we are in 2025 and, to paraphrase the title of their first album, I’ve sobered up. I’m struggling a little with it this morning AKA evening, but I’m confident I won’t be hitting the bottle later on. And last week, Say Sue Me released this EP, which I’ve been slowly getting to grips with amid a torrent of other mental stuff, of which you have just had to patiently hear about.
The record opens with the title track, which is what EPs and singles are want to do, that finds us in familiar musical territory. There are definitely flashes of the band’s “Old Town” in the rhythm section, almost to a frown-inducing extreme. But now there’s a layer of fuzz in the guitars and, during the bridge, an interesting touch of very mild chorus effect over the vocals. “Time is Not Yours” isn’t the EPs standout track, but it does settle you in nicely to the band’s signature sound. What with their 50s surf vibe, intensive touring of America, and handful of Christmas songs (???), these South Koreans really are keen to break the west and remind a potentially new audience who they are, and this track does it perfectly.
“Vacation” begins almost like it’s going to be an epic ballad, but soon we hear mischievous Oasis bends on the guitars and a wonderfully expressive and rubbery bass part Then, after a minor preamble, the song escalates into a grand party-song-for-people-who-don’t-like-parties. You know, for those who’s idea of a party is an afternoon in the pub followed by staggering home to watch bad movies with a case of shitty lager. Yes, the very heart of Britpop, essentially. “Vacation” is big and dumb and fun and truly worthy of singing along to at a rowdy music festival.
By now, we’ve started to notice something new. A fattening of the band’s sound. Our lead singer and her lead guitarist usually play single-coil Fender instruments, a Stratocaster and Jazzmaster, respectively, but now it sounds like they’ve “gone Gibson”. I have seen live footage where the singer is playing an SG, but now they seem to very much be committing to that larger sound.
And so we get “In this Mess”, echoing “Ghosts of a Different Dream” by Guided by Voices, who Say Sue Me have recently paid tribute to with a cover of “Smothered in Hugs” on their odd 2022 anniversary release titled 10, which is seemingly a compilation of studio offcuts or something. I’m really not sure, but it’s worth a listen! “In this Mess” is a classic example of a Say Sue Me rhythm-dominated jam, where the vocals were probably cobbled together right at the end of recording. We also get some liberal use of a wah pedal, which I don’t believe we’ve heard much of on previous releases. Again, this track has a much bigger sound than we’re used to. The jangle of the band’s first three albums is starting to be replaced by something much darker.
And I love it.
With “Mexico”, we get a hypnotic instrumental, which includes hints of My Bloody Valentine slow-tremolo work, rather than cheeky Oasis bends. It features another driving rhythm section, which, to be honest, Say Sue Me doesn’t know how not to do. If I had the eyesight to drive, this would be perfect music to listen to whilst speeding down a lamplit motorway at two in the morning, just before I pull off into a service station for a coffee and Danish pastry. Who knows, perhaps it’s the opening song to their current live shows, which would not surprise me in the least.
And so we end on “Bone Pink”, an upbeat acoustic ditty that swings us back around to the start. It’s solid Say Sue Me fair, designed to be strummed on a Busan beach (unless it’s a landlocked city, of course) over a long weekend. We’re back to minimal effects, the surf vibrato or tremolo or chorus (I’m never sure of the difference) is upped, and the singer gives us sombre lyrics about going slow and not going far.
Or something.
It doesn’t get much simpler than that, with “Bone Pink” being the perfect way to end things.
There we go. Apart from my narcissistic preamble, Time is Not Yours is a joyful return from a band that can only keep getting bigger and more interesting. While my mobility is now low enough that I’d be reluctant to venture out and experience Say Sue Me live, I would certainly consider it if they visited the North of England. If this is a hint at a forthcoming new album, and EPs usually are, then I’ll be first in line at the hipster vinyl record shop ready to barter an organic turnip for my copy.
Erm, I’m not sure if that worked, but I’m leaving it in anyway.
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
