This has been a year of using nostalgia as one of the only sources of positive thought. Sure, the future looks bleak and this year has been a difficult and sometimes devastating blob of steaming hot garbage, the past still hold good memories for us. A part of this past was romantic alt-rock. Yes, that alt-rock; the one that made your teenage eyes glaze over and you can’t even fathom listening to in the current musical climate. Well, back in the early 2000s, Cyanide formed in Delhi as a band that made exactly that kind of music, and they have re-released their debut full-length ‘Sugarcoated’ on streaming services now, in the year 2020. The point is very simple, this isn’t a new music experience as much as it is a snapshot of an old one; as much as we don’t like to admit it, it was a good time.

The band’s members have been doing other stuff since the band split way back in 2013. Vocalist Rohan Solomon is doing singer-songwriter work, guitarist Nikhil Malik makes pop-rap as Iconyk, and drummer Srijan Mahajan plays for Parikrama. But it’s hard to listen to ‘Sugarcoated’ and not be transported back to the time in which music like it was big. It’s folly to listen to the fifty-plus minutes of cheesy lyrics, poppy riffs and classic drum grooves critically; If you think Oh this is so behind the times, yes! It is! But the real fun here is relating to those things again; when those simple lyrics meant something, when those riffs generated dopamine, and when those grooves were replayed again, and again.

Stream 'Sugarcoated' here.