Sunflower Bean Announce Headful of Sugar, Share “Who Put You Up to This?”
Photo by Driely
New York City’s Sunflower Bean have announced their third studio album, Headful of Sugar, coming May 6 on Mom + Pop. It’s the first full-length from the trio—vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming, guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen and drummer Olive Faber—in four years, following 2018’s Twentytwo in Blue. “Who Put You Up to This?,” out now alongside a music video, is our second preview of the album after the October 2021 release of “Baby Don’t Cry.”
Headful of Sugar finds Sunflower Bean “navigating the agony and ecstasy of contemporary American life,” per a press release, and taking nothing for granted along the way. “Tomorrow is not promised, no tour is promised, no popularity is promised, no health or money is promised,” says Cumming in a statement. “Why not make what you want to make on your own terms? Why not make a record that makes you want to dance? Why not make a record that makes you want to scream?” The band did so alongside collaborators Shamir, Suzy Shinn and Jacob Portrait (who mixed the record, and co-produced and co-engineered it alongside Faber).
“Who Put You Up to This?” is a glossy rock track that leads with Cumming’s cooed vocals and a cheery acoustic guitar before upshifting into a slinky psych-rock riff, its midtempo groove punctuated by sledgehammer piano chords. “In another life I was a bitch / In another life I was your bitch / Here’s how it turned out,” sings Cumming, considering the cosmic forces pulling life’s strings, but from a cool, confident remove.
The band say of their new single, “Are you satisfied? Who put you up to do things that you do? Was it your own choice? Questioning your life is the first step to taking the agency to change it. Sometimes you have to let go of who you have been so that you can become who you want to be.”
Sunflower Bean’s King of the Dudes EP was a 2019 standout. They made their full-length debut with 2016’s Human Ceremony.
This spring, the band head out on a North American tour in support of Headful of Sugar, with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local.
Watch the “Who Put You Up to This?” video below, and find Sunflower Bean’s 2016 Daytrotter session and tour dates (newly announced shows in bold) further down, along with the complete details of Headful of Sugar.