Oliver Downes’s new album, While The Sun Shines, was written during Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns and was released on 4 September. This collection includes ten tracks and is his third album. Downes describes this album as “a love letter to my daughter, a celebration of domestic life and the mundane, and a trawl through the entrails of a fracturing relationship.”
By Eleanor Banyard
Feature photo by Willy Pleasance
The first song, Standard, is a fun, jazzy, upbeat song that pushes an energetic tone to the album. The song has a theatrical and musical theatre sound, with the bold background instrumentals paired with conversational vocals. There is a shift in tone just under three minutes into the song, to a slower section, before jumping back into its earlier arrangement.
It’ll Be Alright continues the positivity from the previous track. The song follows the emotions behind the beginning of parenthood: “I never imagined … when you opened your eyes and you took your first breath, what a gift I would receive”. This sweet song highlights the artist’s love for his daughter, with heartfelt lyrics and calm background instrumentals.
Title track While The Sun Shines begins with a catchy background instrumental and leads to a positive and energetic song. The vocals tell the listener a narrative, inviting the listener into the singer’s reminiscing of the past: “Do you remember when we took you to the park”. The music video for this song parallels the fun, warm elements of the track, with two puppets singing and acting out the narrative to colourful backdrops.
Walking the Camino begins with melancholic, sombre piano notes and vulnerable vocals, taking a different tone from the rest of the album. The lyrics are deep: “So I listen to the hissing from the puncture in my heart. I don’t quite know when the spell broke but I didn’t stop to grieve”. The Camino is a network of historic pilgrimage trails which end in Galicia, Spain. Downes uses this reference to represent the long journey which he undertakes with his emotions: “Taking one step at a time”.
Downes’s new album While The Sun Shines brings the listener on a journey with the artist. The collection begins with upbeat and positive songs, with bold instrumentals and colourful vocals, before the tone shifts to more vulnerable lyrics and mellow instrumentals in the later tracks.
If you want to keep up to date with all Oliver Downes is doing, you can by following him on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
While The Sun Shines is out now, and you can listen to it below.