By Donzig
Hailing from Winnipeg, in rural central Canada, sundayclub are a new dream-pop duo. Nikki St. Pierre (vocals, synth, bass, percussion, and drums) and Courtney Carmichael (vocals, guitar, synth, and percussion) make a cohesive, virtually self-contained musical team. Their debut EP Bannatyne dropped in the fall of 2025, garnering welcome critical attention.
The next logical step for a promising new band is the daunting one of putting together a full-length album. It takes time, care, and songwriting ability to create a longer set of songs that is consistent both musically and in terms of quality. Any band that wants to matter must graduate to releasing albums since singles and EP's only go so far. sundayclub have now taken up this challenge.
A trio of singles earlier this year -- "Camera Shy", "Sad Summer" and "Blue Wave" -- gave the public a taste of what was to come. These tracks earned further praise for the duo, in particular from Brooklyn Vegan and Billboard Canada. The rest of the album has now arrived.
Carmichael and St. Pierre self-produced SUNDAYCLUB -- always a sign of confidence and talent -- and create nearly all the sounds themselves, with some help from a fellow Winnipegian, singer-songwriter Kris Ulrich, on five of the album's nine songs.
Standout tracks include: "Blue Wave", an indiepop song invoking fellow Canadians Alvvays and "Corydon Ave (To Meet You)" which, with its shoegaze overtones, is the hardest track on the album. The dreamy "Turquoise", "Sober", and "Camera Shy" favor a shimmering sound on the musical spectrum somewhere between dream-pop and shoegaze; We could use the term dreamgaze to describe this form of music, as well as most of SUNDAYCLUB.
SUNDAYCLUB by sundayclub is out now.
[Photo: Evie Maynes]