Albums of the Year # 24 Say Sue Me - Where We Were Together

I just love this band. Discovered in April.

'The best pure indie-pop record of 2018 (so far) is not from Brooklyn or Glasgow or Melbourne or Olympia but Busan, South Korea. The album, Where we Were Together from the band Say Sue Me, is a perfectly paced fusion of jangling guitars, bouncing bass and sighed melody...'

In this year's World Cup Finals, coming up in a couple of months, South Korea will be fronted by probably the best footballer currently from Asia, Heung Min Son who plies his wares in North London playing for Tottenham Hotspur. It will be interesting to see what he can do. In the same way if Indie Pop hosted a World Cup, South Korea would be able to supply more interesting dark horses, in the shape of Say Sue Me, a fine band, who have just released their second album Where We Were Together.

 

Unsurprisingly, given the quality of last year's eponymous debut, it's a rattlingly good record. The traditions of this stuff are firmly established by now, rooted in C-86 and bolstered by any number of bands from many countries who have been more than happy to chip away at the same stoneface in the three decades since. Say Sue Me have no plans to kick over any statues, but why should they? There will be plenty who will be more than happy with what they've done here.

Yet within the confines of this sound it's actually quite a varied record. Sometimes surfy and meditative, sometimes chirpy and energetic. Songs sung in Korean, songs sungs in English, short tracks and one stretching to almost eight minutes. All with one thing in common. That of being uniformly excellent. A sparkling record!