Colour TV: At Sunset
(via Tip Top Recordings)
Streaming
Out Now
South-West indie pop 4-piece Colour TV bounce back into action with their first single of 2026, At Sunset. It’s another typically melodic and uplifting sound which belies a tale of someone trapped in a spiral of unfulfillment just as the aural spectre of The Smiths hovers tantallisingly overhead.
Following on from the re-grouping and re-energising of Colour TV in 2025, it has become quite apparent that they have a fresh impetus to work on new material with their original mojo coming right back to the fore in their songwriting and live performances. And there remains little doubt that if you have any regard whatsoever for the likes of The Smiths, Pulp, The Drums, or Suede, you are going to seriously appreciate what Colour TV are doing right now. This certainly applies to their new single At Sunset which has been forged in the very same furnace in which their initial inspiration was first cast.
Opening with a distinctive and highly energised guitar riff that pays more than it due to the glamorous brit-pop melodies fashioned by Suede in their early days, At Sunset quickly morphs into a brightly coloured and wiry punk-pop anthem. As Jack Yeo’s intricately layered and jangly guitar lines unfold, it’s a song driven along by James Elliott and Sean Goldsmith’s intense and striking rhythms whilst Sam Durneen’s soaring falsetto vocal style unfolds a narrative which paints a somewhat darker picture than the soundscapes suggest.
Within this urgent and frenzied attack which magnifies the melodic styling of The Smiths, the band describe At Sunset as a “portrait of somebody trapped in a spiral of unfulfillment, unable to escape their own head. The needle on the soundtrack of their life is stuck. Between panic attacks they lie inert, bleeding out, nowhere to look but up.”
The single comes with an accompanying bonus track, Spinning In Your Room, which explores further new sonic territory for the band. Its more acoustic base and haunting and somewhat ethereal folk style vocal take this slow melancholy ballad into more avant-garde and surrealist domains leaving Sam to speculate on his own potential demise with the question, “Will I burn hot white or will I turn invisible?”
And as we leave our own thoughts spinning on this question, we can only speculate further what wonderful songs Colour TV have in store for us throughout the remainder of 2026, with their sound continuing to be underpinned by the cathartic release of first-hand grief.
You can stream the single here.
You can find Colour TV on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and their website.
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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.
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