Sunday Driver UK – Sun God Review

What does Sunday Driver UK sound like?

A heady fusion of British folk and classical Indian instrumentation.

The review of ‘Sun God’ by Sunday Driver UK

Before I dive into the review, despite enjoying their music for years, I’m never quite sure how to name this band. Their website simply calls them Sunday Driver, but their MP3 tags and social media all state Sunday Driver UK. Regardless, before I dive into their new 2025 album ‘Silk and Filth’, I wanted to dive back to their 2022 album ‘Sun God’. Merging two distinctive musical cultures and heritages can be incredibly difficult to do successfully. This is an album that hits all the right notes to provide a unique sound and style in the UK music scene.

‘Sun God’ is a true spice mix of ideas. The band calls it a ‘Spaghetti Eastern’, which is a great descriptor. Whilst there are guitars, drums, bass, and vocals like traditional folk rock bands, you’ll have tabla and sitar solos, and multiple languages flying at you. It is incredibly inventive, and the opening two tracks, ‘Sun God’ and ‘Fore A Few Regrets More’, showcase just how inventive. The former balances gypsy folk with Indian instrumentation perfectly with an incredibly catchy melody and a cheeky shuffle. The latter showcases some stunning tabla skills and rhythmic voice work before transitioning into a full prog rock finale. The amount of subgenres Sunday Driver UK can gallop through in six minutes is insane, and it all sounds connected and cohesive.

‘Sylvie’ is a complete 180. A harp leads the main melody in a delicate and sensitive French ballad. It straddles bard folk and bluesy jazz in a mystical shroud of beauty. We then move into the caravan gypsy folk rock of ‘In Your Shadow’. This track merges Indian percussion into a traditional British folk set-up to bring a lethargic, somewhat slinky and thirsty track. It’s sludgy tempo and just-out-of-reach vocal delivery sell the idea that the music has been on a long journey and is knackered. This perfectly juxtaposes ‘Somewhere Nice’, which brings in lots of exotic instruments for a lush, tumbling, ever-swirling track. After searching for that perfect oasis, the music switches into a powerful outro of big chords and statement-making cohesion. It is about as mainstream as the album gets for two minutes, yet still, we have all kinds of instrumentation working in unison to create a surge of longing and emotion.

‘Mathanga’ is as close to a traditional Indian song reimagined as the album gets. The lilting sitar, relaxed tablas, and something akin to a shehnai (Indian reed instrument) take centre stage in this luscious and luxurious track. ‘Time Machine’ takes a turn towards psychedelic rock with its playful approach towards tempo and stabbing chord scales. The acoustic approach, backed with a subtle reed and string arrangement, makes the song sound like it is coming from different decades. I can hear 70s rock, traditional Indian influences, and more modern folk tropes buried within it. The album closes out with the dreamy and mournful ‘Keepsake’. At times, the album has a mild Persian flair, with ‘Keepsake’ sounding like a serious, sentimental Eastern Bloc Eurovision ballad. I mean that in a good way, as Sunday Driver UK let the electric guitar ballad drift by effortlessly.

Put simply, there isn’t anyone else I’ve discovered making the music Sunday Driver UK does. Whether it is in the instrumentation, the hotpot mix of cultures, the traditional versus modern sci-fi references, or the blend of genres – this is truly unique. If you think you’ve heard everything in the folk world, then give Sunday Driver UK a try. It isn’t just fun from a novelty perspective either. Their music is as captivating and emotionally charged as the best in the folk and world scenes. A consistently excellent hidden gem of musical artistry – often with a carnal kiss.

Recommended track: Sun God

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