ep review ~ 'sleepy' ~ sleeping outside
Sleeping Oustide ~ 'Sleepy'
For fans of⁞► Modern Baseball, Cloud Nothings
For some, the golden age of the North Coast music scene had
been and gone. And So I Watch You From Afar made the big time. Axis Of similarly
so...and since then? Well, there hadn't been too much to get excited about. Gigs
became scarce, those that remained didn’t get the biggest of crowds. Change
was needed and in four young lads called Little Arcadia, the North finally got
some.
Indeed, these last few years have seen an indie resurgence,
still inspired by the harder edges of those legends past. A series of new band’s
slowly emerged up North, bringing with them fresh perspective of an ever
changing cultural and political landscape. There were new people to sing songs about
and new people to sing them; and so a new scene was born.
Like it or not, alt-four piece Sleeping Outside now have the
responsibility of helping to carry this new scene; but could their four track
debut ‘Sleepy’ go someway to living up to that hype? Taylor Johnson had a
listen…
Long term fans of Sleeping Outside (from the ‘Omerta’ days)
will immediately recognise the familiar burst of ‘Inhaler’, ‘Sleepy’s
explosive opening track and so often the band’s opener on stage. Regret tinged
and cinematic in equal measure, ‘Inhaler’
races to a crescendo of unusually comforting sadness, broken only by a well-timed
slowdown. Frontman Shea McCauley’s vocals have never sounded so pristine and
clear, floating over the band’s raucous noise. Maintaining this blistering pace
is ‘Shoelaces’, which sounds straight off of Cloud Nothing’s ‘Turning On’ EP,
albeit with a lighter finish. What’s beautiful here is for every tragic lyric
there’s a catchy melody, an engaging bass run. This is heartbreak you can dance
to.
We’re then hit with ‘Postcards’,
a ferocious emo-anthem bordering on early Modern Baseball. We also hear
McCauley at his most introspective. ‘You
sent me postcards from places I’ve never been, set it on the mantelpiece and never
look at it again…this is the reason why we can’t simply be friends’. Lead
guitarist Andy Kane also gets his first chance to really let go, in a sea of
feedback.
It’s here Sleeping Outside tear up the rulebook and remind
you of their roots. ‘Two For Joy’s gradual build up and triumphant ending is an
exhilarating and unexpected finish to a strong debut. It perhaps to acts as a nod to
Little Arcadia, a band that from day one supported Sleeping Outside at every opportunity; a
love clearly reciprocated by all those involved in the North Coast scene.
As cool an instrumental as it is, you still long to hear more of the stories McCauley and his band mates tell so well. It is here where they truly shine and the reason why you’ll return to ‘Sleepy’ more than once.
As cool an instrumental as it is, you still long to hear more of the stories McCauley and his band mates tell so well. It is here where they truly shine and the reason why you’ll return to ‘Sleepy’ more than once.
Taylor Johnson
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