Sunbursting

Album review

Bibio's Stephen Wilkinson closes out the Bib10 era with Sunbursting, an EP that leans into the seductive mix of R&B, funk, and slinky pop that dominated the first half of his tenth album. The ways he expands on this sound just might be smoother than the album that spawned it, particularly on the EP's bookends: The opener "Sorry (Won't Cut It)," which features Bib10 vocalist Olivier St. Louis and taps into vintage R&B's ability to sound blissful and heartbroken at the same time, is easily as good as anything on the album. The title track, which weaves together Wilkinson's delicately picked guitar and wisps of tenor sax courtesy of Óskar Guðjónsson, brings Sunbursting to a dreamy close. As on Bib10, Wilkinson's homages to the sounds of the 1970s and '80s are irony free, even when he brings out the vocoder on the funky ballad "Rosewoods" or flirts with smooth jazz on "All of the Above." He also avoids being too reverent, adding unexpected touches like violin and glockenspiel to the standout "Shine a Light on Your Mirror" and cloaking "A Matter of Fact" in an artful haze that harks back to the atmosphere of Ambivalence Avenue. Since Bib10 was awash in hooky songs, it's not surprising that Sunbursting feels more substantive than some of Bibio's other companion EPs -- nor is it a surprise that it finds Wilkinson giving a fresh, appealing perspective on the past.
© Heather Phares /TiVo