Album Review Sacred Paws - Run Around The Sun

With Sacred Paws’ members having lived in different cities for the majority of their existence as a band, the project was always going to be the result of precious moments of overlap, a fleeting audio collection of a transient period. Previous release ‘Strike a Match’, was a long-distance labour of love between duo Rachel Aggs (vocals, bass, guitar) who was living in London (and also plays in Shopping and Trash Kit) and Eilidh Rodgers (vocals & drums) who was living in Glasgow at the time. Their first full-length - glittering, catchy art-pop - is a collage of all the songs they’d worked on together and lovingly assembled and pasted like an arts and crafts project. With ‘Run Around the Sun’, though, the project was made in the same manner, despite Eilidh moving to London. It just goes to reinforce that Sacred Paws is the result of creativity in the moment, a sort of musicality that doesn’t have to rely on the physicality of location.

Much like their previous releases, ‘Run Around the Sun’ is a collection of delightful, sunshine-soaked fuzz-pop. Rachel’s guitar-playing - effervescent and the heartbeat of the band - is as infectious as the band’s melodies. Opening track ‘The Conversation’ recalls the glorious indie-pop shimmer of Pip Blom or the Orielles. The band stray between the boundaries of lo-fi surf to more light punk across the album. “I don’t care, no / Life’s too short,” the duo iterate on the album track of the same name. Sacred Paws are having fun, and you just have to go along with the ride.