LA singer/songwriter Sunny War began her career as a busker, which is usually the kind of CV that results in loud, strummy songs that emphasize volume and ferocity over nuance and melody (see: those first few Billy Bragg records). So it’s a joy that War’s third album, With the Sun, is not a record of belted-out jeremiads, but instead a gorgeous, meticulously-constructed record that touches on folk and blues and country without ever owing a clear debt to any single one of them. It’s even more remarkable considering War spent her formative years kicking around the LA punk scene, playing house shows with rambunctious bands like FIDLAR. But she emerges clear-eyed and self-assured from the get-go, on the gorgeous album opener, “If It Wasn’t Broken.” War’s guitar fluttering down like falling feathers, and she delicately applies her voice to the spaces in between, delivering the song’s matter-of-fact chorus with wisdom and grace: “How would you know had a heart/ if it wasn’t broken?/ if it wasn’t broken?” When the songs do veer political, they’re handled not with blunt force but with a carefulness that makes the sentiment they express that much more powerful. “I get home and turn on the TV,” War sings on “I’m Human,” against a twitching guitar figure and gently-brushed snare. Then, she sighs out the verse’s dark kicker: “They killed another man who looks just like me.” With the Sun is a powerful showcase for a singer and lyricist who seems to have arrived fully-formed, with a natural gift for simple, gentle melodies and a knowledge beyond her years.
The Fat Angel Sings 