Album Evaluate
It’s Karma It’s Cool
One Million Suburban Sunsets
DL / streaming
Launched 24 October 2025
From Lincoln, fourth album from a band who burst the confines of the style they’re greatest recognized for. It’s Karma It’s Cool at the moment are a correct modern rock band in quest of an viewers who need large anthemic tunes, stadium-sized angst that by some means lifts you out of a generational mid-life disaster. Ged Babey waves his lighter within the air.
There aren’t many bands like this I can truthfully say I actually-like… The Manics, Placebo, Muse (carefully) – the ‘area gig’ isn’t my pure habitat, I a lot want the small venue. Which is the place you’ll truly discover It’s Karma It’s Cool, however it’s simply they sound prepared for giant, open-air phases primarily based on this new album.
It was one tune that received me hooked. I wrote about it. ‘A Kick-ass English REM’. The earlier single was nice too. Then I found they’re considered one of my ‘web mate’ Barry’s favorite bands. Nothing higher than a private advice.
It’s Karma It’s Cool go for a giant sound on this album, a ‘play loud’ rock and roll sound – BUT, on the identical time they’ve quiet, tuneful, melodic moments and phrases of knowledge to whisper in your ear. Melancholy and bombast. Tears and little victories. Adversity and anthems to punch the air to.
They aren’t a younger band, however they aren’t previous geezers, that is them taking inventory and taking onboard the entire historical past of fashionable rock music from the 60’s to now. The benchmarks being (in all probability) the Beatles, the Byrds, Nirvana and Radiohead, by way of U2 and REM…(and extra) and making their very own music out of their diverse influences.
Their earlier albums fell into the Powerpop or Nation Rock umbrella which they felt constrained by.
Bands hate to be labelled and pigeonholed and I’m positive it’s Karma, it’s Cool aren’t any exception. It’s lazy journalism and a crucial evil on the identical time. How are they gonna discover a wider viewers with some clues or signposts.
‘I suppose they sound a bit like The Killers – large catchy songs’ the bloke down the pub would inform you.
However their sound is an retro combination of REM, the Bends-era Radiohead, soulful Huge Nation meets Manics kind rock with a splash of metallic (guitar solo’s) and The Waterboys soul and tenderness.
It’s the constant high quality of the songwriting which is IKIC’s fundamental energy and like every band the main focus is on the singer and Jim Styring does have an incredible distinctive voice. It’s mid-way between Feargal Sharkey and Michael Stipe by some means – with a little bit of Ian Broudie perhaps. It’s not a rock bellow or crushed gonad falsetto – only a voice that’s naturally heat and tuneful with out attempting too onerous.
Musically One Million Suburban Sunsets does go from loud to quiet and again once more on nearly each tune however it appears pure and creates a dramatic pressure and launch. Huge bombastic woah-oh-oh’s and full on guitar solos are there however it by no means seems like a bloated-cock-rock parody – extra like nice misplaced bands Whipping Boy and Into Paradise however that’s in all probability simply me.
A monitor referred to as ‘Swans‘ is the stand-out tune, by a nostril (or a beak) to my thoughts, though there isn’t a duff monitor on the album. It deserves to be a large hit on ‘drivetime’ radio – in the event that they didn’t solely play ‘hits’ from ‘throughout the many years’. It’s a kind of mid-paced, lighters-aloft, catchy however unusually emotional songs that you just get caught in your mind. I requested Jim about it.
I all the time depart {lyrics} open to interpretation. It’s extra necessary what the listener believes than what I had in thoughts after I wrote them. Swans, nonetheless, is mainly about by no means giving up on one thing that’s necessary to you. These so referred to as ‘specialists’ telling us that rock and roll is lifeless and buried. So long as we, as people, have feelings, songwriters will proceed to jot down, bands will proceed to kind, our music will proceed to thrive. Principally, in case you consider in one thing , don’t let anybody put you down.
I bear in mind seeing, or studying one thing, concerning the Yangtze River in China being so polluted that the native dolphins had been thought to have died out. Years later when the large clear up began, they returned, seemingly from nowhere. That story simply caught with me, form of like a metaphor for rock and roll.
Lastly it got here to me who IKIC remind me of – and oddly, it’s The Cranberries (however with a male vocalist clearly) – a a lot under-rated musical outfit from my (jaundiced hipster-punk) standpoint who I solely succumbed to after my spouse performed them lots within the automobile.
One Million Suburban Sunsets is ‘driving music’ in each senses of the phrase. It’s not radical however it is stuffed with coronary heart, soul and ambition and nice songs.
It’s Karma… are cool. That is their most interesting hour. Give or take 10 minutes.
All phrases Ged Babey with PR content material in italics
A Plea From Louder Than Conflict
Louder Than Conflict is run by a small however devoted unbiased staff, and we depend on the small sum of money we generate to maintain the positioning operating easily. Any cash we do get isn’t lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to assume and write, or hungry shareholders. We all know instances are robust, and we wish to proceed bringing you information on essentially the most attention-grabbing releases, the newest gigs and anything that tickles our fancy. We’re not pushed by revenue, simply pure enthusiasm for a scene that each considered one of us is captivated with.
To us, music and tradition are eveything, with out them, our very souls shrivel and die. We don’t cost artists for the publicity we give them and to many, what we do is totally important. Subscribing to considered one of our paid tiers takes only a minute, and every sign-up makes a big impact, serving to to maintain the flame of unbiased music burning! Please click on the button beneath to assist.
John Robb – Editor in Chief
