- Some bands you can tell a lot about how they sound from their name. I’m thinking here of acts like Metallica, The Dixie Chicks, or Extreme Noise Terror. On the other hand, sometimes you expect one thing then are surprised – like Daft Punk or The New Pornographers.
What should we make of the nomenclature of Sydney three piece Sleepy? Let’s start by saying they don’t sound much like Sleep, either the doom band or the activity most of us do each night. They don’t have the depth and weight of REM sleep, or the vivid surrealism of dreams.
They do sound like being sleepy, especially when you combine that with the title of one of the songs from their new EP, Sunday Sun. Like the two tracks that precede it on the EP, the song is all fuzzy and gently jangling guitars, soothing melodies, sweet male and female harmonies, and a mix that lets everything glide by in a hazy daydream.
The music is certainly reminiscent of early '90’s Sydney indie pop like Smudge or Falling Joys; and maybe it’s the resemblance to that era or maybe just the sound that makes me picture the band permanently in sepia tone, as if even in real life they would play surrounded by a pleasant haze.
The last song and title track, Postcards, livens things up a bit with its faster tempo and guitar solos, but it’s also the least enjoyable song on the record. It’s like Sleepy have gotten to the point of the afternoon where they’ve decided to get up off the couch on the verandah and do something, but it sounds too forced. When lead singer Martin (Sleepy don’t list surnames) sings “I died just a little inside ‘cos it’s not like you know I care” you suspect he doesn’t really mean it, he’s just bowing to social convention that says you’re supposed to feel things deeply and not just lie around in a pleasant stupor letting the world pass you by.
With that though, the record is over. Four songs in twelve minutes; like most little naps leaving you feeling like what preceded was nice, and you would have been up for more, but ultimately you know you can’t sustain entirely on that for a well-rounded life.
- Andy Paine.