Why is it about turning 22 that seems to inspire so many musicians? The alliteration? The one-year anniversary of turning into an adult? Brooklyn rock trio Sunflower Bean - vocalist/bassist Julia Cumming, vocalist/guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Jacob Faber - recently one-upped the likes of Taylor Swift and Lily Allen by releasing a poignant new single (“Twentytwo”) and announcing that their upcoming sophomore album will be titled Twentytwo in Blue (March 23rd, 2018, via Mom + Pop Records). (Unlike Swift and Allen, Cummings actually turns 22 the year her single was released).
As with last year's "I Was a Fool", the track brings the melancholic pop rock of Fleetwood Mac to mind. Cumming's dreamy vocals induce a pleasant reverie, even it does not take long for her to move on from the obvious mention of independence to grapple with the intersection of ageism and sexism: 'Busted and used, that's how you view your girl/ Now that she's twentytwo, twentytwo/ If I could do it, I would stay young for you'. The chorus is a rallying cry for perseverance in the face of adversity, and appears to reappropriate Dylan Thomas' famed villanelle for a younger generation: 'I do not go quietly/ Into the night that calls me/ Even when I'm alone'.
The vocal harmonies reassure as the guitars sparkle. Cummings eventually makes a temporary slip from the song's first person perspective to make a seemingly meta-statement about her power as a singer-songwriter to share her hard-earned optimism about the future with her fans: 'If I could do it, I would take her in my arms/ I would unwrong all his wrongs/ I could stay here and write a thousand songs/ Just to show her that the stars/ Still come out behind the fog/ There's a light on in the lighthouse/ You can see it in the dark.' She reminds us all that the light never truly dies - we have just (temporarily) lost sight of it.
