EP Review: The Sylvia Platters – Will Tomorrow Be Enough

Vancouver quartet The Sylvia Platters find themselves effortlessly and delightfully pivoting from the 60s to the 80s on their new EP, Will Tomorrow Be Enough.

If The Sylvia Platters and their music are going to be part of it, then tomorrow will indeed be enough. The EP has a freshness to it, a newness that belies where the band draws from on False Colours: 60s beat and 80s power pop allied to a melody that is constantly moving around the rhythm section. Gwendolyn, Approximately might glance at the early days of shoegaze and early Britrock, but the emphasis is on creating a light and highly melodic sound. It’s also where the band’s knack for creating catchy guitar riffs and sweet vocal harmonies is at its best.

This is a quartet that also knows how to rock out: Tactical Lunch Box is powered by some hard riffs and a suspenseful-sounding Hammond organ that reveals that the band can venture somewhere darker if the material requires it. The jangle of Alone doesn’t obscure the sense of realness behind the lyrics; the tempo is slower than much of the EP, and it’s also where the influence of Scottish indie groups like Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, and The Pastels is most noticeable.

That trio also found the roots of their music in a 60s pop-rock sound that has been reimagined and reframed for audiences in the 80s initially, and up to the present day. Time Takes Its Time, the final track on the EP, continues that theme, though the focus is on the vocals and acoustic guitar – a suitably soothing and reflective way for the band to leave us. Assuming you don’t just head back to False Colours and play the EP all over again!

Like those three bands I mentioned above, The Sylvia Platters know how to take from the genre’s most creative periods without getting stuck in a retro groove. That can be attributed to the clever songwriting on the EP’s five songs, the incisive nature of the lyrics, and the band’s ability to fashion some serious guitar-pop melodies, but most of all, the obviousness of how the quartet comes together to make it all sound so natural and spontaneous sounding.

Will Tomorrow Be Enough was released on the 6th of February and is available on Bandcamp in digital and cassette format. The EP can also be heard on SoundCloud and Spotify. Catch up with The Sylvia Platters on Facebook, Instagram, or Substack for all the latest band news.

Header photo by Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson