Did Your Mother Tell You? appeared in autumn 2004 as the teaser for an eventual full-length, a full year after
Love & Death, the Sun's previous teaser EP. The ongoing delay is aggravating, because as the latest EP reasserts, the Sun is ready to explode.
Love & Death was a curious, cool mixture of grimy garage spirit and synthesizer overtones. Those sounds return on
Did Your Mother, but they're joined by everything from
French Kicks-style indie rock squawk ("My Girlfriend's Best Friend"), to hazy Brit-pop overtones ("Valentine") and gentle acoustic balladry ("Demons"). "Justice" would fit nicely into
the Dandy Warhols' catalog with its sexualized lyrics and layered guitars, while "Sandy" amplifies its garage swagger with a whirring synth bassline and preening backup harmonies. It's a mixed bag of sounds and styles, to be sure, but the Sun blends them with incredible ease and heaps of hooky melody. It just makes LP that much harder to wait for. ~ Johnny Loftus