Suntan - Send You Home (2003)

Suntan's second offering, Send You Home, makes you believe that it is the early '90s. Shoegazing space rock is back and very healthy. Each epic track slowly builds into a lush layering affair. Send You Home starts out of the gate sounding like Jane's Addiction or Tripping Daisy, building driving guitars with effects against one another. One can make many references to My Bloody Valentine and Jessamine when listening to Suntan, but the band makes Send You Home their own. Suntan adds addition instruments into the typical rock outfit to create their own individual style. The subtle use of synths, organs, violins, and alto sax bring the tracks to a lush level, perhaps at times sounding like a more aggressive American Analog Set. "King Felix" is a big repetitive highlight that utilizes keyboard drones and vocal effects to create a huge atmosphere. The drums add funky offbeats and a wonderful tempo shift in the middle of "King Felix" to keep everything interesting. The average time of a song clocks in at eight minutes, except a nice cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything" and a dreamy interlude/intro entitled "Wiles/Lecube Interlude." The tracks might be a tad too long, depending on your mood. Send You Home is solid second record which works well throughout, and with shoegaze making a strong comeback, this is one to have in your collection.