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The Sounding Board

Say Sue Me make a short, sweet return with Time is Not Yours

A weekly column where New Music Tuesdays live on. Conversation is encouraged in the comments.

Time is Not Yours

Every Tuesday, the Sounding Board is a space for a short-ish review of a recent-ish release and conversations about new-to-you music. We’ll get things started with a write-up about a newer, likely under-heard album, and invite you to share your music musings in the comments.

After three years of relative silence, Say Sue Me are back, and they’re better and louder than ever. 

On Time is Not Yours, Say Sue Me’s new five-song  EP, the Busan-based dream poppers hone in on an element of tuneful, shoegaze noise that’s long been at least a minor presence on their past efforts and make it the EP’s defining quality. It’s a helluva way for the band to clear its throat after not releasing anything more substantial than a single since 2022’s deeply enjoyable, The Last Thing Left. 

While the fuller, slightly heavier sound is present on Time is Not Yours’ opening title track, its impact fully snaps into focus about halfway through its second track,  “Vacation,” a song that channels the energy of its title and ambles like “Country House” by Blur with about 10% more intensity. It features Kim Hanjoo, a South Korean singer and keyboardist whose voice provides a lovely counterbalance to vocalist-guitarist Choi Sumi’s airy coo. After Sumi and Hanjoo hit  the song’s chorus — “Take a deep breath/ No morе hate, no more despеration/ Haste will be less/ It’s time to go on vacation,” — for the second time, a quick-but-powerful drum fill from Lim Sungwan rolls through the song and cues up a landslide of guitar crunch courtesy of Sumi and guitarist-producer Kim Buyngkyu. 

It’s not a sound that’s totally absent from Say Sue Me’s previous releases, but in the past, the band’s default setting has been closer to early Alvvays than Blue Smiley, so it is a mild surprise — and a pleasant one. Say Sue Me’s music always had bounce, but on The Last Thing Left, they also show off some hefty swagger. Thankfully, it’s a style that sticks for a couple tracks, too. 

No one would mistake “In This Mess,” or “Mexico” for noise rock, but both marry fuzzy guitar tones to driving drums to winning results. “Mexico” is an instrumental with a surf-rock sound and a sense of scope. It’s ambitious enough to stay interesting across four minutes but tight enough to avoid accidentally traipsing into jam band territory. “In This Mess” makes the case that the best possible use of Sumi’s voice is placing it back in the mix and letting its wisps float above and past reverb-drenched guitars. It also features the album’s best solo, a sort of Jay Mascis-lite, effects-heavy affair that adds a ton of texture to the track while bouncing off the bumpers of its melody. It’s the longest song on Time is Not Yours, but it’s also its noisiest and most urgent. If not for the  EP’s ultimate track, those ephemeral vocals might also qualify it as the prettiest.

Say Sue Me can’t resist slowing down and softening up on, “Bone Pink,” Time is Not Yours’ final track. It’s a twangy, tuneful callback to the dominant sounds of the band’s past work. While it’s slight compared to the previous louder songs, the interplay between the gentle rhythm guitar and sweetly searing lead make a simple song feel rich. It’s a gorgeous, if on the nose, way to close the EP. If Say Sue Me wanted to make a full album exclusively in its vein, the loss of the newfound noise would be a disappointment, but it would still be a welcome development. Especially if it meant the next new music from Say Sue Me is less than three years away.