Album Review: Sunny Hills by All We Are

over Sunny Hills, the sophomore LP from Norwegian-Brazilian-Irish-by-way-of-Liverpool indie pop trio All We Are. The pastel-hued dream pop and slick synth R&B of their 2015 debut have given way to a more cathartic post-punk sound that the band attributes to the underlying anxieties and general displacement of 2017's social climate. Tapping into the global emotional zeitgeist, but reaching for a place of optimism, All We Are stretch out on opener "Burn It All Out," a darkly grooving new wave opus urging listeners to stay steadfast and bust through the gloom with lines like "all your worries inside, all the panic within you, burn it all out, stop the cold dark tide.

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Superficially, at least, diversity has always been All We Are's defining characteristic. The trio are based in Liverpool, but drawn from all over; frontwoman Guro Gikling is Norwegian, guitarist Luis Santos hails from Brazil and drummer Richard O'Flynn is Irish - the three merely met at Liverpool's Institute for Performing Arts. Richard shares vocal duties with Guro, and their 2015 self-titled debut was a broad affair, rooted in rock but constantly flirting with R&B. On this follow-up, you have to wonder whether the sheer scale of their scope has begun to overwhelm them, because 'Sunny Hills' feels throughout like an album that isn't sure what exactly it wants to be.

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