Andrew Weiss And Friends Bring Together Folk-Rock and Power Pop on Expansive LP ‘Sunglass And Ash’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Photo credit: Benjamin Lieber

Going back to 2018, Andrew Weiss And Friends have been impressively stitching together influences from 1970s folk rock to Power Pop from that same decade for a sound that is anything but dated. And on their latest, Sunglass And Ash – a double album – the Long Island crew continue that tradition nicely. You can hear everyone from The Beatles to Badfinger throughout the record. 

While a 24-track double LP can be intimidating, the band’s knack for mixing up musical genres and Weiss’s smartly written lyrics make the musical trek worth it. “What’ve We Learned to Live With,” the song that opens this collection, is a ripping singalong that is entirely relatable given the current state of society. And “Tommy’s Teardrops” proves Weiss can write a solid character-driven song. There are one or two missteps along the way though, like the glum “I Don’t Write The Headlines,” slathered in wah wah guitar, that immediately needle scratches the feel-good vibe of the record. 

Weiss initially planned on putting out another, more traditional 12-song LP for the follow up to last year’s Highly Fascinated, but tapped into a creative groove quarantining during the pandemic and writing music daily. “I ended up with 95 finished songs by the end of 2020, and it was just a matter of picking which ones to record,” he said recently. “I initially thought, maybe I’ll record the best 12, as most people do. But then I was like…why not the best 24? These are all valid, they all mean something, and they all connect in a narrative way.”

And while not all 24 tracks here are remarkable, the one or two weaker moments do little to take away from the overall enjoyment of Sunglass And Ash. From the quieter acoustic moments to the driving anthems here, Weiss has created yet another great album to add to his catalogue and proves that a double LP was the way to go.    

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