There’s so much more.
Melbourne songwriter Oliver Downes has always had a knack for finding the strange beauty tucked away in ordinary life.
On his third album While the Sun Shines, he digs even deeper, delivering a collection of songs that wrestle with fatherhood, fractured relationships, and the quiet determination to keep going when things fall apart.
The record was written across Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns, and you can feel that confinement in the bones of these songs. But Downes isn’t interested in wallowing.
He’s after something more complicated: the humour that survives alongside heartbreak, the tenderness that persists even when love gets messy.
He describes the album himself as “a love letter to [his] daughter, a celebration of domestic life and the mundane, and a trawl through the entrails of a fracturing relationship.” That about sums it up.
Downes walks a line between theatrical piano balladry and chamber pop, with echoes of Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave.
His baritone voice carries a warmth that makes even his sharpest observations feel like confessions shared over a drink.
The arrangements are rich without being overcrowded, thanks to a band that includes his sister Holly Downes on double bass, Luke Carbon on alto sax, and Felix Gilmour on drums.
The title track ‘While The Sun Shines’ is the kind of propulsive piano rock that gets lodged in your head and refuses to leave. Triple R’s Hal Langley called it “an ode to happy memories,” and it’s easy to hear why.
On the other end of the spectrum, ‘Fragile Things’ takes a more measured approach, cataloguing all the delicate, easily broken parts of life from a child’s teddy bear to a marriage on the verge of collapse.
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Downes has been building toward this for a while. His debut Ultraviolet dealt with overcoming depression, while The Wheel reflected on the cycles that shape our lives.
While the Sun Shines feels like the natural next step, a record that balances humour, sincerity, and clear eyed reflection without ever losing sight of the ordinary moments that make life worth living.
It’s an album about making the most of the time we have, even when that time feels heavy. And that’s a message worth holding onto.
