There is something delightfully old-school about The Sunday Shamans, and “Where You Begin” leans into that timeless spirit with grit under its fingernails and melancholy in its bloodstream. The London trio—Lucid L, Tambourine Tom, and Donnacha the Wizard—have been quietly building their debut album In Past Lives inside the legendary Bookhouse Studios, and this latest single feels like a hazy transmission from another era. Inspired by classic rock heavyweights like The Beatles and Cream, the band trades polished perfection for raw feeling, recording live with minimal overdubs and no click tracks.
Right from the opening seconds, “Where You Begin” sinks its claws in with thick glistening guitars and rumbling drums that feel heavy enough to shake the floorboards. The riffs grind and shimmer with psychedelic tension while cymbals spark around the edges like static electricity. Then the vocals drift in. The singer’s deep, slurred voice sounds dazed, almost intoxicated, as though he is dragging himself through the emotional wreckage of an old relationship he cannot quite let go of. It creates a bruised, weary atmosphere that suits the song perfectly.
Lyrically, the track wrestles with the strange ache of hindsight. “We stay up late at night and talked about who we wanted to be,” he sings, sounding trapped between nostalgia and regret. The chorus line, “Is this where you begin and I end?” lands like a punch to the gut, capturing that painful realization that someone changed your life forever, even if they are no longer in it. The song ties beautifully into the album’s overarching idea of “past lives,” whether that means reincarnation or simply the versions of ourselves we leave behind after transformative love.
Still, despite all its emotional fog, “Where You Begin” never loses its swagger. The guitars drive forward with hypnotic force, the rhythm section rumbles confidently beneath the haze, and the entire track feels alive in that loose, unpredictable way only genuine live recording can capture. It is messy, soulful, reflective rock music with one foot in the past and the other stumbling toward something new.
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Review by: Naomi Joan