False Futures – Under The Same Sun (2025)
Review contributed by Bark PR
Strip away the sunny optimism of its title and ‘Under The Same Sun’ reveals itself as something more complex – a song wrestling with the uncomfortable truth that growing up means watching your rebellious instincts get slowly domesticated. What initially sounds like a feel-good anthem about youthful freedom is actually grittier and more interesting.
The track’s real power lies in its contradictions. Yes, it’s about that childhood memory of kids flogging sweets from their school bags, but it’s also about recognising that such small acts of defiance eventually get squeezed out of us. Mathew Conner’s vocals carry a weight that suggests he’s not entirely convinced by his own pep talk to his younger self. There’s resignation hiding beneath the encouragement, a sense that the “pat on the back” he mentions is as much a consolation prize as a celebration. He explains:
“This track is a pat on the back to my younger self; a reminder to do as you please with your time on earth… The good, the bad, the alright, everything that has ever happened has done so under the same sun, and that’s all the guarantee you’re getting.”
Sonically, False Futures have crafted something that feels deliberately cramped – not just because it was recorded in a 9×9 room, but because the music itself seems to strain against invisible boundaries. The guitars jangle with restrained energy, as if they’re being held back from something more explosive. It’s indie-rock that knows it’s supposed to be uplifting but can’t quite shake its melancholy.
What makes ‘Under The Same Sun’ work is precisely this tension between what it wants to say and what it actually reveals. The song insists that everything happens under the same sun, a comforting thought that’s meant to minimise life’s disappointments. But listen closer and you’ll hear the flip side: if everything happens under the same sun, then your dreams aren’t special, your struggles aren’t unique, and that bootbag entrepreneurship was always destined to be just a memory.
The eight-year journey from instrumental demo to finished song shows in the track’s bones. This isn’t the work of young firebrands burning bright and fast; it’s the product of minds that have had time to second-guess themselves, to wonder if the thing they’re trying to say is worth saying at all. That hesitation, rather than diminishing the song, gives it its emotional heft.
False Futures have made a record that functions as both a rallying cry and a funeral dirge for youthful ambition. It’s the sound of a band smart enough to know that the best advice often comes wrapped in doubt, and brave enough to let that doubt show through the cracks.
Find out more about False Futures on their official website, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Spotify.
