Cold Shoulders - The Sun Goes Down Alone (2024) Hi-Res

Rock music, when done well, can be every bit as infectious as pop music and every bit as cool as its indie sibling. This is precisely what I am reminded of as “Don’t Wanna Fall” ushers Cold Shoulders’s new album into earshot. Not only does this opening salvo blend and blur sonic boundaries, as all great music must, but throughout the album, the band often does so in a way reminiscent of iconic artists such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I don’t think that you can ask for a better accolade than that.

And if songs such as “No More Honey” indeed lean into that blend of rock-Americana-new wave swagger that few did better than the man who would also take the name Charlie T Wilbury Jr. there are plenty of other tracks that prove Cold Shoulders have more than enough of their own sonic identity.

“When the Time Is Right” is full of Byrdsian jangle and shimmering power pop moves, “Through My Arms” lights a rock ‘n’ roll fire under a pop sound, blending the anthemic with the accessible, the cinematic with the catchy, and “Neon Lights” feels like it is a long lost soundtrack to an eighties blockbuster movie…possibly involving Tom Cruise or Kevin Bacon and airplanes or racing cars or towns that have banned music…or all of the above.

Cold Shoulders remind us that rock music, or more properly rock and roll, can, and indeed should, be groovesome, infectious, boogie-inducing, and full of hooks. And this album has more hooks than a Peter Pan convention.

Cold Shoulders is an indie rock band made up of three close friends from Norway. This band blends music from different genres, and different decades, to craft a uniquely enchanting sound of big electric guitars, tight steady drum rhythms, and grooving bass. With the release of their original album “The Sun Goes Down Alone,” Cold Shoulders demonstrates their artistic talent and creative vision with ease, laying passionate melodies and thoughtful lyrics on top of rocking beats and introspective arrangements.

The album opens with “Don’t wanna fall,” a grungy rock track about finding comfort in another person who always seems to be able to lift you up when you are down. Throughout the album, Cold Shoulders looks at the many facets of relationships, talking about how the good and bad often exist together. In “Through my arms,” the third track on the album, the line “you fell through my arms” is particularly impactful considering how we just heard the narrator singing about the fear of falling in the opening track. With emotional electric guitar and poignant storytelling, Cold Shoulders examines the bittersweet nature of losing someone you love, while knowing that it might actually be for the best.

“Neon lights” is the closing track of the album, and a powerful one at that. An uptempo and rocking tune, the title of the album, “The Sun Goes Down Alone” is a lyric in this song. Cold Shoulders is looking for an escape and hoping for guidance, heading towards the “neon lights” to get away from the existentialism caused by a monotonous life.