Review: Zella Day’s ‘Sunday In Heaven’ is a Sun-Soaked Trip Toward Self-Actualization

Q&AMusic

Oct 17

☆ By Sam Mackey ☆

A SONIC REPRESENTATION OF HOW FILM PHOTOS FEEL — Zella Day’s music is warm-toned, grainy and seasoned; honest yet aesthetically embellished. On Sunday In Heaven, Day covers many bases. The album confronts a deteriorating relationship and details steps towards self-actualization while being decorated with sun-soaked sounds of escapism and daydreams.

When seven years pass without an artist releasing an album, anticipation builds while questions arise about their next steps. Though LA-based musician Zella Day hasn’t put out a full-length release since 2015’s Kicker, she has been far from quiet in the time between. Keeping an active name in the scene through sporadic original singles, covers, and both live and studio appearances with the alluring voices of Weyes Blood and Lana Del Rey, Day made listeners wonder what this was all leading up to. When her new album, Sunday In Heaven, was announced, summer of 2021’s flashy and self-assured tracks “Girls,” “Golden,” and “Dance for Love” all found a permanent home.

Opening the album with a subtle Alice in Wonderland nod, “Mushroom Punch” summons listeners with a fairytale-like guitar intro and steady yet bashful drum beat that immerses them into the experience. Production-wise, it hints at what’s to come in the album, including carefully-calculated background vocals that playfully help the stories unwind. As the song unravels, Day softly tiptoes through psychedelic imagery into a grand personal revelation. This cathartic release is a theme throughout the album, with Day disallowing songs from sounding stagnant as she often exhibits her full range within a single song. She quickly builds up from a delicate hum to an uninhibited belt, as also seen in “Almost Good.” The jangly percussion on “Am I Still Your Baby” breaks down into a hazy outro that feels like floating through space, transcending realms musically and lyrically as she asks, “Am I still your baby somewhere?” Day’s vocal and stylistic versatility makes Sunday In Heaven enticing upon first listen, with songs like “Dance for Love,” a ’60s-inspired disco track, existing in the same universe as “Bunny,” a stripped-down, raspy piano ballad.

Thematically, the album travels through phases. “Radio Silence” shatters the flashy, golden daydreams, serving as both the turning point and the powerhouse of the album as Day solitarily confronts reality. The following four tracks continue to exist as confessionals down on earth. In “Last Time,” she sings, “It’s not the last time you'll see me around / under the blue light you’ll see my face again / I almost died from the heartbreak and loneliness / I know some of you wish I did / It would’ve been easier that way.” “Bunny” prompts her to revisit her past. “When I was younger / I was in delicate shape / Getting myself into trouble / Acting too old for my age,” Day sings. But these are not confessions communicating insecurity or uncertainty — they’re ones of development and reflection.

Day’s as lyricism transcends personal turmoils, it also confronts more worldly issues. In the aptly titled “Real Life,” Day details a reality check on emotions, finances, and the country’s political state. “I'm starting to go broke,” “I want his ship to sail so I can hold on tight but he’s still living at his mother’s,” and “I’ve seen a television host put a cage around the children / Make ‘em scream for the american dream just to tell them they’re undeserving” makes us think deeper into if Day is using the concept of “heaven” in a juxtaposed form.

Though “Last Time” feels like it could serve as a grand album closer that concludes with idiosyncratic guitar plucks that walks the listener to their destination, the title track, “Sunday In Heaven,” marks the place past ascension. “It’s sunday in heaven / It’s been a long year / I'm killing time turning water to wine / I’m waiting for you right here / Oh nobody smokes and they don't get my jokes / I'm wondering if they sent you down below” show her playful yet honest lyricism while quietly escorting the listener out and tucking the album to sleep.

Day travels through the complex human experience and illustrates how nothing is concrete. While Sunday can symbolize relaxation and bliss, it can also hold worry. Heaven holds perfection and divinity, but also marks mortality and longing. Perhaps the revelations throughout Sunday In Heaven are what allows Day to ascend to this supposed point of “heaven.” Though at first listen her lyrics may sound more like they’re coming from an intermediate state of purgatory due to the revisiting of past pain, it becomes clear upon extended time with the album that these are the words of a woman who has come to terms with her fate and is ready to move forward.

Sunday In Heaven is out on Oct. 14 via Concord Records.

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