Sun Airway | photo courtesy of the artist
Sun Airway rolls out a third song from Heraldic Black Cherry, “Violent Grey”
It’s one of those contradictions of creativity: the intersection of desire and reality, the wanting to be the focus of attention without necessarily putting oneself out there. Philly’s Jon Barthmus has been through it a couple times, back in the aughties blogrock era with his spectacular pop band The A-Sides and more recently with the elegant electronic outfit Sun Airway, which had a couple great higher-profile moments on the Dead Oceans roster and then retreated to the shadows for a couple years.
In recent months, we’ve heard the first new music in four years from the project — its third LP, Heraldic Black Cherry, is on the way this winter / spring — and on the heels of “FOAM” and “All In,” today we’ve got the existential quandary of “Violent Grey.” Viewing that push-pull of the limelight from a different angle, Barthmus sings “I don’t want to be forgotten, I just want to be forgotten,” and if those are indeed two distinct wishes, perhaps his plan to keep Sun Airway a studio project is the best way to fulfill both.
The songs is great, in any case; remarkably 80s poppy, with some of Barthmus’ most incisive turns of phrase: “I’m at a loss for words these days, I’ve been out side, its always violent grey / the weather station’s always wrong.”
Listen to the song below.