Sun Shines Cold – Light Fades Into Ruins

One thing I Love about writing music blogs is when you get to write about a band a few times and you get to experience their development as songwriters and musicians. So it is with Sun Shines Cold. Multi instrumentalists Brian Jordan and Colan Miles have been playing and recording music together for over 20 years. In that time, they have crafted a world of glacial, almost mountainous relief where the music is equal parts emotion and impact. I absolutely loved their debut album Echoes of a Former Life which given it was their debut tackled subject matter from the boy’s pasts. I remember commenting that I felt it was a work of gothic grandeur, a dark companion to take you to places you’re too scared to go alone. I also noted the optimism that burned brightly amongst the darkness in almost every track. With influences including Slowdive, The Cure, Ride, Mogwai, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, and Interpol that made sense to me.

Now that band return with their second long player Light Fades Into Ruins. This double album turns its attention to more recent years, current situations and the bands lived experience. Miles had this to say.

Sun Shines Cold are drawing from shoegaze, post rock, post punk, psych, darkwave and dreampop here. The album never feels like a list of reference points though. It feels like two musicians using a shared language they have built over years, then letting those sounds carry real events, regrets, affection, loss and the ache of looking back at something before it disappears from view. Let’s drop the needle and dive in.

We open with the first half of the records composite title. It’s a short instrumental piece that sets the mood for what’s to come. It’s a slow burner that gradually adds its different parts like the darkness swallows the land at dusk.

‘Winters End’ is up next. It’s a very sure-footed single that is positioned exactly where it belongs on the record. As the final taste before the album launch, it folds shoegaze, post punk, psych and 80s goth colours into something reflective and emotionally direct. The guitars have a cool glare to them; the rhythm section moves with purpose but it’s that chorus that lifts everything to the next level. This is what I was talking about at the start. I remember hearing this prior to it being released and having a wee smile to myself. I knew then that this was going to be a special album.

There is a different kind of ache running through ‘Wait My Time’. The lyrics circle waiting, longing and emotional endurance. Drums absolutely power through this one while the guitars widen around the vocal, giving the words room to sit in the middle of the mix. Images of returning, leaving and eyes that keep drawing someone back add to the sense of a relationship caught inside repeated cycles. I love the textures in the one. Icy but hopeful.

‘Everything Has Changed’ begins as a more straightforward number. Vocals hold the course straight up the middle while the synths and guitars howl like the wind on an open moor. The subtle climb of the chorus feels like it’s about to take off but the band are masters at restraint and they pull us back in again with the deftest of touches. This shows how Sun Shines Cold know that sometimes it’s just about the mood you create without the need for any theatrical flourishes.

‘All I Need’ is one of the album’s most openly affecting moments. The song holds onto the idea of another person as a source of brightness during dark days. Sounding like a lost track from The Cure’s Disintegration this one floored me first listen. How they’ve managed to nail the balance between heart breaking pain and soaring euphoria is beyond me. This one is set to become a fan favourite and should secure them many more as word gets out.

‘Where I Lie’ pulls the album inward again. You can hear the post punk side of the band in the clipped movement underneath, while the shoegaze textures soften the harder edges just enough. Speaking of which the guitars here both have that bright chime as well as voluminous, canyon size reverb going on which massively pleases my ears.

Moving on to ‘Last Sunset’ next you’ll have noticed that the album has already given us several versions of endings, and this one feels especially visual. The title suggests a final view of something before darkness takes over, and the song carries that sense of watching closely. The arrangement has a slow burn quality, with guitars spreading in warm layers while the rhythm section acts as the heartbeat.  The best moments are when the guitars create an aural glow that feels fragile and very deliberate. You can almost see the colour leaving the sky.

‘Into Ruins’ acts like a turning point. If ‘Light Fades’ opened the record with the first loss of brightness, this track, the second half of the composite album title, brings you to the place where that loss has left its mark. The music is tonnes heavier in tone, with a darker pulse and a sense of motion that pulls the listener deeper into the record’s second half. The guitars have a many layered texture to them, and the keys add a cold, cinematic edge without taking over. This is where the post rock side of Sun Shines Cold becomes especially useful. The track feels built from fragments that have settled into place after something has broken. Powerful stuff.

A softer uncertainty sits at the heart of ‘A Feeling Unknown’. The lyrics move through walking alone, holding hands, unspoken words and connections that fade, and the song turns those images into one of the album’s most searching pieces. The vocal delivery feels exposed, with the arrangement wrapping around it in slow layers of guitar and keys. There is a real ache in the distance between what is said and what remains unsaid. That distance gives the song its power. Sun Shines Cold never rush the listener toward meaning. They let the uncertainty linger and the result is a track that feels intimate without spelling out every answer.

‘I Watched You Fall’ brings a sharper emotional edge. The title alone carries the weight of witnessing someone else’s collapse, and the track feels haunted by that helplessness. The rhythm section gives the song a slow, firm movement, while the guitars create a wide grey space around the vocal. The synths pierce through with a hopeful optimism that counterbalances it all. The chorus has a real darkwave vibe through that melody and how the synths are used.

‘Betrayal’ carries one of the album’s bluntest titles, and the music has the weight to match it. The track sits with emotional rupture rather than turn it into a quick burst of anger. The bass line gives the song a firm centre, and the guitars sound darker, thicker and more confrontational than they do on some of the surrounding tracks. The vocal feels controlled, which makes the hurt feel sharper. This track has a very spacious production and sounds amazing on my speakers.

The album moves into a more hollowed out space with ‘Lost Again’. After the damage of ‘Betrayal’, this title feels painfully apt, as though the record is now dealing with the aftermath, the disorientation that follows. The song has a worn-down beauty to it, with guitars that seem to stretch across the arrangement while the rhythm section keeps everything moving forward. There is a dreampop softness in places, but the emotional tone stays heavy.

‘No Way Back’ gives the album a fitting final chapter. Across the record, Sun Shines Cold have moved through fading light, winter’s end, waiting, change, need, ruin, uncertainty, falling, betrayal and being lost. This closing track sounds like an acceptance of consequence. The title has a finality to it, and the arrangement seems to understand that finality without overplaying it. The guitars stretch wide; the bass holds the whole thing up and the keys add a final wash of colour around the edges. For a double album built around recent life, memory and emotional fallout, we’ve ended with glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Taken as a whole, Light Fades Into Ruins feels like a big step forward. Jordan and Miles use familiar ingredients from shoegaze, post rock, post punk, psych, darkwave and dreampop, then turn them towards something personal and direct. The album has ambitious scale, with 13 tracks spread across a double release, but it also has the intimacy of a late conversation between people who have known each other for years. Sun Shines Cold have made an album about recent life as it is felt after the fact, when the brightness has lowered and the remains start speaking back. By the end, the light has faded, and the ruins have plenty to say.

Light Fades Into Ruins is out on June 25 via 1991 Recordings. You can check it out over on the Sun Shines Cold Bandcamp page.

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