It’s been a minute since we last checked in with Manchester’s Sumos. I had to look it up, but their acclaimed debut album Surfacing already came out back in 2023.
Its follow-up is the Luck EP, in case the giant typography on the cover somehow didn’t give it away. From opener Icebreaker, it’s immediately clear what made this band stick in the first place: they know how to write songs. Proper ones. There are six of them here, all wired into that distinctly British strain of indie rock where the vocal melodies feel faintly shaped by generations of folk music, even when the band is making a racket.
Because Sumos are not a folk band. This is energetic indie rock and noise pop driven as much by crashing guitars as memorable hooks.
Luck is out now on Meritorio and Safe Suburban Home Records, alongside that excellent new Rural France LP.