Opus Kink – ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ review: a crepuscular debut that might have missed the boat

Timing, as they say, is everything. And, arriving almost 10 years since they first formed in Brighton, and more than four since their 2022 debut EP ‘’Til The Stream Runs Dry’ tipped them for intriguingly grubby, underground success, jazz-punk band Opus Kink have taken the road to their debut album at a glacial pace. READ MORE: Growth, girlhood, and getting down: for FLO, ‘Therapy At The Club’ captures the spirit of life and love in your twenties The reasons for ‘The Sweet Goodbye’’s lengthy gestation are standard issue for a relatively small band: a classic mathematical problem of too many day jobs plus not enough time or money. But the musical landscape slows for no band, and the alternative world that Opus Kink find themselves returning to is a markedly different one to that in which they cut their teeth. Back in the earlier part of the decade, NME tipped them for hometown glory at 2022’s The Great Escape, calling them a “ramshackle collective with a flair for the theatrics” in a scene dripping with them. From the art-punk sensibilities of Deadletter to the mischievous spirit of fellow Brightonians KEG, the lingering influence of Fat White Family still remained strong and rock ba...