Surprisingly, Black Sun is Australian quintet Gold Fields’ debut album; I say it’s surprising due to the professional nature of the record and the relative maturity of the ensemble’s compositions. Black Sun cannot be easily categorized into a single genre, as while an electro-pop base is present, Gold Fields venture to and fro across the musical spectrum.
The chorus of “Dark Again” is contagious, and dangerously so. I found myself humming along by the time the refrain was repeated once again. My humming soon turned into clapping upon the introduction of “Treehouse,” which maintains the album’s ferociously energetic and optimistic stance. “Closest I Could Get” has a disco-polo sound of decades past, without overwhelming the listener with a feeling of nostalgia; while the track clearly has its roots in a bygone era of music, it certainly doesn’t feel obsolete.
My personal favorite from Black Sun, and one which I feel deserves a paragraph all on its own, is “Meet My Friends.” Less about friendship and more about the main protagonist’s past travels and adventures, “Meet My Friends” is a real headbanger. Syncopating relentlessly, the track lulls the listener into a trance from which you simply cannot escape.
Full of fun, catchy choruses, the dance-inducing Black Sun sets the bar very high for any future releases from Gold Fields. The band has a professional maturity that is far beyond their years, and they clearly know what kind of music is relevant today—something that the youth will definitely appreciate. Now if you’ll excuse me, something is pushing me to listen to this album again…
In A Word: Catchy
