The Sleepers: Birthday

I love it when a new band comes along, regardless of their style or reviews proclaiming them to be alt-rock, post punk or whatever, and just kicks ass regardless of the musical genre or label. Not that I have a problem with labels (ok I really do) and let's face it most of us need labels to compare something to something to at least give us some sort of reference point to go by. The Sleepers are a trio hailing from Denver, and although they do possess certain musical similarities to bands like The Breeders, The Pixies and Sonic Youth, and in fact they have been compared to all three, for all their fuzzed out ragged glory, they've managed to create their own balance between the jagged and the dreamy. The band is comprised of Kathryn Ellinger (bass, vocals & keys), Michael Trenhaile (guitars) and Nick Ryan (drums) and they've been together since 2001. On this new full length release, Birthday, the band shows that they're fully capable of rocking out and turning the amps up a notch, in fact there are quite a few tracks in this vein that show their harder edge, but what really works well on Birthday is when the band is unafraid to mix things up and show their softer side. Slowing down the tempos highlights Ellinger's wistful and dreamy vocals on moodier tracks like "C'mon Frank", "Milky Way" and the excellent disc closer "Black White, which also features some nice melodic lead work from Trenhaile. They created a CD which musically finds them looking inward, as they do on the more introspective pieces, and outward as well, as they seem just as comfortable shooting their sonic wad skyward when it's time to cut loose. The more I play this one, the more I like it. Nicely done.

Track Listing
1) Alone With The Outcasts
2) Hier am Main
3) C'mon Frank
4) Honey
5) Milky Way
6) You Turn Back
7) Got Back Up
8) Venice
9) Ely
10) Frenchie
11) See The Rules Broken
12) Black White

Added: December 18th 2005
Reviewer: Ryan Sparks
Score:
Related Link: Official Website
Hits: 2809
Language: english

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