Rob Prince returns with ‘Sunshine’, a new single arriving on 5th June 2026 with a story that reaches all the way back to 1999. First written and recorded when Rob was 17, during the height of Britpop and just before his girlfriend left the country for a year, the song now comes back in two forms: a newly reworked studio version for his upcoming EP, and the original unedited cassette recording as the B-side, released as ‘Sunshine ’99’.
That gives ‘Sunshine’ a built-in emotional charge before you even get to the music itself. This is not nostalgia manufactured in hindsight or dressed up to sound more authentic than it really is. The old recording is the old recording. The new version comes from the same person 27 years later, now happily married to the girl he first sent that tape to. That alone makes this a lovely premise for a single, but it also gives Rob Prince something rarer than a simple retro nod: a real story that has actually lasted.
A love story with proper indie-rock roots
The framing is clever because it lets Rob Prince operate in two time zones at once through ‘Sunshine’. On one side, there is the rush of being young, hopeful and in love, trying to bottle uncertainty before it slips away. On the other, there is the older perspective that comes with reworking a song after decades have passed and life has unfolded in ways your teenage self could never quite guarantee. That tension between innocence and hindsight gives the release much more weight than a straightforward throwback single would have had.
It also helps that the 90s connection feels lived rather than borrowed. There is a difference between borrowing Britpop aesthetics and actually having grown up inside that moment, and ‘Sunshine’ seems to have that real lineage built into it. Even the B-side concept is strong: ‘Sunshine ’99’ is not a re-recorded “vintage” version, but the exact teenage document preserved as it was. That makes the single feel like both a new release and a time capsule.
The artwork deepens that sense of family history too, having been designed by Rob Prince and his two daughters. That detail could easily have been a footnote, but in the context of this song it actually means quite a lot. A teenage love song, written in uncertainty, now becomes something touched by the family that relationship went on to build. It is a neat and genuinely moving way of making the single feel personal without over-explaining it.
‘Sunshine’ Review
What makes this so appealing is that the whole release seems to come with its own emotional proof. ‘Sunshine’ is not just selling you on a mood or a reference point. It comes with history attached, and that gives the song a warmth that is hard to fake. The 2026 studio version sounds like it has every chance of landing as a big, polished indie-rock update, but the real charm is in knowing the heart of it has survived from the first version.
The decision to include ‘Sunshine ’99’ as the B-side is a great one too. It turns the single from a simple reworking into a conversation between past and present, and it gives listeners a way to hear the original feeling before time and experience reshaped it. Plenty of releases trade in nostalgia, but not many can offer the real thing this directly.
Most of all, this sounds like a release people will want to get behind because the story and the song seem to belong together so naturally. There is romance in it, obviously, but there is also sincerity, and that matters more. For me, ‘Sunshine’ has the makings of a very likeable single: heartfelt, rooted in something real, and much more affecting than a simple retro exercise.
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