Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
San Francisco’s Hannah van Loon, like most of us, knows Sundays often offer the chance to embrace the comedown from the weekend and think about what’s next. Making music under the name Tanukichan, her debut album Sundays is an ode to uncertainty, where van Loon’s lyrics about love and longing float through foggy, layered atmospherics that are punctured with piercing basslines. Co-written and produced by Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi, the album is less about directly answering personal questions for van Loon, but rather creating an immersive space where she can sort through her most fleeting thoughts and emotions safely.
On “The Best,” van Loon ponders a lack of connection; the track is swathed in warm reverb, suggesting an intangible longing. “Bitter Medicine” is a song about swallowing hard truths about yourself and your surroundings, something van Loon is willing to do in stride. While these strong outings seem to find their greatest inspiration in the hissing grandeur of ‘90s shoegaze, songs like “The Blue Sky” and “Sundays” find synths washing in and out of dazed, echoing guitar feedback that has a bit of that signature Chaz Bear flair. The album rounds out with “This Time,” a luminous dreampop finale where van Loon approaches forgiveness with a level head, leaving the door open for a potential reunion.
The anxiety around seeking clarity in one’s life, needing definition, can lead to even more difficulties. Sundays is a lyrical exercise in letting go of expectations, set to a shoegaze daydream that obviously invokes the style’s nostalgic past without becoming mired in it.