Song of the Day 9/10: Sunny War, “Whole”

Venice Beach-based singer-songwriter Sunny War got a big media push when her latest album, “Anarchist Gospel,” dropped back in February, but the song that WXPN picked up didn’t catch my ear the way this one did when it popped up on a Spotify list the other day.

Sydney Lyndella Ward’s bluesy folk has won her lots of admirers – guest artists on “Anarchist Gospel” include David Rawlings, Jim James and Willie Nelson’s son Micah – but she’s got punk edge (she used to be in a folk-punk duo called Anus Kings) that wasn’t dulled by her move to Nashville, where her new label is headquartered.

She also has a social awareness that might not fit in too well in the Trumpiest state in America. “Whole” reads like an ode to quiet quitting.

Don’t you work yourself
Yourself to death
Take a break from the man-made hell
To catch a breath

Today could be the last you know
Happy’s how you ought to go
No pay could ever buy your soul
Ever make you whole

“No Reason” is the song that WXPN has played over the least several months. It’s more uptempo than “Whole,” which closes the album, and it’s personal rather than political.