Every now and again the heart needs to slow down, and pay attention to its feelings. Sun Dummy, the solo brainchild of Liz Costello (also of Special Explosion), creates music that forces such a general, slow-motion confrontation. Her debut album is out today on Seagreen Records, and it’s filled with the ache of inescapability. “Bunny” is an effected and effectual piece of folk melancholy, its reverbed wail entering and exiting the psyche in less than two minutes. Molasses-paced fingerpicking on an acoustic guitar painstakingly rings loudly into the recording microphone, each note resonating bigger than itself, and its hum surrounding Costello’s whispered cooing. A scraping wah sound repeats throughout its entirety, the actual snail’s underbelly attaching and detaching itself to a surface. You feel an invisible hand reach out, and rest on your shoulder, holding you in place and insisting you pay attention to your own emotions.
