The Sufis
After Hours

For the series of albums that don't hurt, today we present you the third album by the Sufis, an Anglo-Indian duo from Nashville, Tennessee devoted to the sound of the Shaggs and launched in 2012 by Ample Play, the label of Ben and Tjinder of Cornershop. A collaboration that has proven fruitful, as the label released the band's first two albums, "The Sufis" (made with the support of friends Paperhead) and "Inventions" in 2013. Both albums offered a sound not particularly original: the usual revival of psychedelic pop sounds from the sixties and the sound of southern California, a kind of revival like that of the Allah-las but certainly less convincing. After all, the duo did not manage to break through and eventually decided to leave Nashville and Tennessee and move to Brooklyn, New York in search of new sources of inspiration. Apparently, this move has been fruitful: last June, the Sufis returned to the recording studio to work on a new album, released two weeks ago on Burger Records and titled "After Hours."

From the first track, it is immediately evident that the duo has turned a corner and sought a new formula, expanding their horizons to more captivating sounds. "After Hours," "Made Me Leave / Crispy Grapes II," "It's Hard," "All Knowing," and "Till I Get Home" are songs evidently influenced by certain late seventies pop dance sounds; "Anymore," "Another Way," "Mercy" wink at the indie pop sound of the worst Belle and Sebastian; "Take Care Of Yourself" is a kind of parody of Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side." Close to the pop psychedelia of groups like Foxygen's Jonathan Rado and Sam France and a certain indie aesthetic that continues to work and have followings despite the passing of years, the Sufis turn in this new direction: the final result is, as I said at the opening of the review, absolutely harmless. This album indeed does not hurt. But it doesn’t do any good either. It's like drinking a glass of water completely stripped of any mineral component. At this point, it's better to die of thirst.