Calder’s Music Column - Say Sue Me and the Beauty of Simple Songwriting
Calder Burke (12-2)
Ahhhh, here we are again. The Voices music column, second edition of the year. In March. Yep. When I first started writing the column, I had a whole roadmap in my head of albums to cover, artists to highlight, music to explore, and with two more editions of Voices on the horizon and graduation looming behind them in the distance, I think I’ve done a fair job of setting myself up to check the last few essential artists off of the list. As such, I now present to you one of these truly essential groups in Say Sue Me.
I first heard Say Sue Me on a sun-showery day in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, their sound reeling me in right away, as it seemingly mimicked the weather - drippy, hazy, yet bright. An indie rock band hailing from coastal Busan, South Korea, and one that some may recognize for their theme song for the K-Drama “Nevertheless,” the group employs a surf rock sound with elements of everything from punk to jazz. Through their three full-length albums and various EPs, Say Sue Me’s drums are tight, their bass lines are funky, and their guitar riffs (a staple of nearly every track) are tasteful, never flashy, and feature an abundance of reverb. Despite being a four-piece band, Say Sue Me is atmospheric, often giving the impression of a modern symphony. It’s a beautiful phenomenon that’s impossible to put into words, but in essence, the band’s music will fill up whatever space you give it.
While I would listen to the band for these instrumentals alone, the most endearing aspect of the band’s work comes from their lyrics; more specifically, singer/songwriter/guitarist Sumi Choi’s beautiful, simple songwriting. Multilingual, Sumi writes lyrics in both Korean and English, preferring to sing in the latter, as she feels less vulnerable in the language. Say Sue Me’s first two records, We’ve Sobered Up and Where We Were Together, focus primarily on the simple feelings and happenings of life, be these desire, unworthiness, depression, love, etc., and it is Sumi’s simplistic lyrics that work to so compellingly convey whatever topic matter she chooses to explore. When Sumi sings “Let's make a crying episode, that won't hurt you like you think,” on the song “Crying Episode,” followed by “When you make a sad face, I want to be with you. I want to touch your warm cheek,” it just works! Before listening to the band, I wouldn’t have thought to call a well-needed cry a “crying episode,” but that’s exactly what it is, and when someone you love is in need of one, of course you want to be with them in any possible capacity. It’s just so endearing, so simple. The same goes for lyrics in nearly every song, from “How are you today. The street where we used to hang out is fine,” in the hometown-hating “Old Town”, to “I’m full of things I hate but I like you,” in the aptly-titled “But I Like You”. Sumi employs an elegance in simplicity, emphasized further in the band’s most recent album, the post-COVID The Last Thing Left, where lyrics such as “I don't know where the longing ends; keep walking listening to your favorite band” (“No Real Place”), and “Something better is around you; I'll be better when I'm around you” (“Around You”), perfectly capture the near-universal feeling of missing your people or your person, be it in a global pandemic, or just because you aren’t with them in the moment. If you ever need a song to scratch just that itch of the exact emotion you’re feeling, or just want some incredible indie rock to get down to, I couldn’t think of a better group to recommend than Say Sue Me.
Listen to: Old Town, Funny and Cute, After Falling Asleep, Around You, No Real Place, Crying Episode, What I Have To Do, or the entire discography!