Jimi Boswell Slides Into ‘Sunset City’

Discover Jimi Boswell’s eclectic glam-pop debut ‘Sunset City’.

Jimi Boswell – ‘Sunset City’

‘Sometimes I can live for the weekend, sometimes I can’t live at all…’ opens ‘Sunset City’ by Jimi Boswell. It’s a line that sets up the push-and-pull of this song, the extrovert vs. the introvert inside us all, and the disorienting experience of the best Friday night that you’re not even really sure you want to be at. Ah, cognitive dissonance – let’s put it in a pop song. 

Jimi Boswell is a young British singer, songwriter and producer. After years of producing for others, he’s finally stepping forward with his own music and this debut single.

‘Sunset City’ is a bubbling indie-pop track with a quirky sensibility and influences from all across the spectrum.

The sardonic lyrics cover everything from a night out – ‘Too bad if I’m late to the party, didn’t even really wanna show’ – to strange imaginings – ‘Had a dream I was sitting in a classroom, I got up, left the room and ran’. The itchingly catchy chorus digs into the underbelly of an unnamed sunset city – ‘Sunset city, you’re so pretty when you think you’ve got it all’. This is all delivered with insistent pop melodies, and Boswell’s husky lead vocals, half-speaking in a way that brings classic 70s and 80s frontmen to mind. 

The production is pleasingly fresh, with plastic beats, screeching synths, a playful electric guitar, tight vocal harmonies and a humming bass. The bareness references acts like Lorde, yet the playfulness might remind you of K-Pop, whilst the overall effect owes something to David Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys. It’s a fresh, idiosyncratic track with a solid identity for a new artist. 

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Words Eden Tredwell