Review: Sukh floats through love and grace with ‘Heading East’ album

Love is among the very few things that keep existence from completely collapsing beneath us. Whether in everyday conversation or during the creation of art, love can make living worth dying for. Sukh induces sparkling love, grace, and hope with his new album. Heading East, an eight-track collection, forges warmth, magic, and charm into a furious windstorm that douses the senses and shatters the stony exterior that often encompasses our lives. It’s equal parts enrapturing and moody, touching upon what it means to confront life’s ravaging storms and come out the other side.

“I can not let you down / I’ll see you around,” he sings on “For the Road” over a rhythmic gallop. The tinseled travelin’ tune arrives as one of many musical tentpoles on the record. Where “Far” palpitates with a soul-clutching vibration, “Conquered” strikes like hot iron on the heart, ripping sinewy membranes into tattered ribbons. It’s in the way the singer and songwriter can drive nails into love and all its colors. He decorates his words with starlit accessories that boost the emotional intensity. “Together we are stronger,” he vows, wrapping his voice around the melodic gold.

From the self-detonating “Love Atom” to the daring and intricate “If You Are,” Sukh’s Heading East paints in rich, lush, acrylic colors. The musical choices (synths, percussion, etc.) always serve a delicate purpose. With producer Rox Capriotti in tow, Sukh constructs an intense and electrifying world in which he transmits the energy necessary to shoot meteors across the sky. He reaches deep into his chest cavern to collect the currency needed to navigate every dizzying high and tremendous low of love in all its forms.

There’s no doubting Sukh’s talents after even a half-listen. But buried within Heading East, he exposes his soul in ways that are nothing sort of magnificent. He lets it all come cascading down the mountainside of his existence – disclosing all the lingering effects love has on you and your loved ones. The impact can be heart-rending, deadly even. Despite the radiation glowing from the inside out, love can be painful and treacherous. That’s just how things operate.

Sukh’s Heading East is out now on all digital and streaming platforms.