Australian indie rock band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return after four years with “Sunburned in London,” a radiant, late-night indie groove that drifts between cities, memories, and the lingering glow after the party ends.

 follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist

Stream: “Sunburned in London” – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

At the edge of the River Thames, sailboats shimmer upon the water as they drift in the distance, their silhouettes soft against the fading light.

The air holds that familiar in-between feeling – the hush before night fully settles, when the city hums with leftover warmth from the day. Standing in London’s urban glow, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever move through the light, their direction shaped by a flush of inspiration and experience, tracing the rhythms of the places that have long fueled their songs.

Cities have long been a subject for the Australian indie rock quintet – Fran Keaney, Tom Russo, Joe White, Joe Russo, and Marcel Tussie – who are influenced by the passionate cityscapes and the politics that come into view. 2017’s The French Press EP, opened with the acclaimed “French Press,” showcasing their grooves, insight into their artistry, and strength in vivid songwriting, where darkness and light coexist. 2022’s third (and most recent) LP Endless Rooms explored how places can change how you feel as times shift with the seasons, ultimately questioning what can influence or inspire a mood or direction. As daylight shifts hour by hour, that brief stretch just after sunset becomes the moment worth savoring.

Sunburned in London
Up from The Colony
Greet the Old Enemy
With new energy
Haven’t we met before?
Ancient history
In the rose garden
Felt your heart harden
We are strangers
We will always be strangers

Four years later, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return with “Sunburned in London,” released February 2^nd via I Oh You. The song is accompanied by a live video shot at Melbourne’s Northcote Theatre, featuring fellow Australian artists Stella Donnelly, Sophie Ozard, and Julia Wallace on backing vocals and keys – offering a visual guide to the band’s musical world. As the sun sets, a little past dusk, the party begins to cast its afterglow through the sensory experience. The after-hours start, and the lights come on – having fun and enjoying the atmosphere it offers is an energy worth living for. It’s an energetic, uplifting, and charming indie groove.

“As a band, we have always made songs about cities,” singer/guitarist Tom Russo shared upon the song’s release. “I was thinking about sensory overload and relentless beauty, and the creeping feeling in the streets that the party’s winding up and the lights are about to come on.”

Sunburned in Dublin
The queen is dead
I see my brothers in the street
Long love our friends
I see my mother
In the hills
If I squint hard enough
I’m not the only one
Nostalgically f*ed up
And it’s been raining for 400 years here

Sunburned in Tokyo
We were still strangers
Kissed by the turnstile
Shibuya Station
I held you close
As the lights smeared
Under the umbrella
Your eyes were clear
As the mountain stream
Smoke from the alley
Moss on the stone
Moss on our dreams
And always strangers

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s return begins with a bass line and big-room guitar, layered with an acoustic guitar rhythm that reverberates and shimmers into a daytime radiance. Each verse leads the listener to a new direction and scenario, with a lineage of people and places within an emotional landscape tied to a specific location, most notably the luminous “Sunburned in London, up from the colony.” The song is brimming with history, allowing references to return to what once was in a historical and political context. “Ancient history in the rose garden.” The lyrics bloom with patterned visuals, set to a natural cadence, each guitar downstroke shimmering with new energy. The lead guitar breaks the lyrics as the drums match the intensity, carrying listeners back to the memory of basking in the sun, feeling the afterburn. As the intensity softens, the tempo descends into a delay of wonder, with the final kick drum hit delivered with strong force.

Sunburned in Oslo
Glass towers gleaming
In the brilliant views
Expensive blues
In secret harbours
Teens try mischief
But it gets harder
When the midnight sun
Shines down
Down on everyone
Sorry situation

The track’s tonality shines beyond the songwriting, with multiple verses that depict different scenarios in each city. It’s the people in those spaces who follow a map through conversation, losing track of time with each passing sunset. The song holds remnants of midnight conversations when the lights come on, and the lingering thoughts of loss that shape spontaneous and deep-rooted relationships, and the loss of them simultaneously with each shift of place – chasing a new belonging, claiming new spaces to call home. The tune moves through the depths of experience, night and day, as bodies pass through the seasons and sensations. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever evoke visuals best experienced as an internal daydream, combining calming tranquility and determination with a long-overdue sunburned, heated groove.

Sunburned in New York
City of the holy
Touch down in Newark
Dream it starts slowly
Tony said
Ever feel like you missed out on the ground floor?
Say sweet nothing in endless bathrooms
There are countries in the canyons
Garbage marinating on the pavement
Trust fund babies making gravy
This must be the place

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever remind listeners what it feels like to recall the sun.

As the final notes fade, “Sunburned in London” lingers like the warmth on your skin after a long day in the sun – a reminder of where you’ve been, who you met, and the fleeting magic of those in-between moments when cities glow a little softer. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever don’t just chart destinations here; they capture the emotional weather of moving through them, the conversations that stretch into the night, and the strange comfort of being both a stranger and a participant in the same breath.

Sunburned in Melbourne
Arrived uninvited
Now we’re inside
Lock the door behind
I’m at the bar
Still talking about the war
Talk about old enemies
Talk about new energy
Talk about property
Talk about no history
Talk crossroad Germany
Talk midnight Sicily
Talk Christ at Calvary
Talk past life revelry
Talk about revolution
We talk about Melbourne
And Caroline Springs eternal

Standing on the edge of the Thames in London, the water splashes alongside the current, echoing the aftermath of a night’s party in “Sunburned in London.” It’s a sun-streaked, late-night anthem for travelers, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever chased the afterglow just a little longer than they meant to. After four years away, this song sees the band barreling back with the same restless spirit that first carried them across the map.

Fans in Australia can catch Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s performance at the Northcote Theatre on February 17th as the band steps back into the light after their time apart.

Wind it back
To the start
When the flame was in the heart
But the days keep coming strong
And the shadows growing long

Wind it back
To the start
When the rain was off the chart
And the sun it rises still
On our outpost
On the hill

— —

:: stream/purchase Sunburned in London here ::

:: connect with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever here ::

— —

Stream: “Sunburned in London” – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

— — — —

Connect to Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever on
Facebook, 𝕏, Instagram

Discover new music on Atwood Magazine

 © Nick McKinlay

:: Today’s Song(s) ::

 follow our daily playlist on Spotify

:: Stream Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever ::