Sleep Decade have been floating around Melbourne for a couple of years now, preaching their delicate shoegaze dream pop to wide-eyed punters the city over. While Into Spinning Lights is probably not an album you’d throw on gearing up for a Saturday night out, it’s certainly one for the Sunday after, when you’re feeling a little dusty and a little sorry for yourself. The album almost acts as an open diary for 20-somethings with tales of love, loss, and of course, just a little recreational drug use. You can almost picture the streets in Melbourne where the dialogues in the songs are taking place. While there will be inevitable comparisons to bands like The xx, Sleep Decade do more than enough to stand alone, creating an album with a rich tapestry of colours and sounds.
Sleep Decades’ meticulous craftsmanship shines through on almost every song. It’s a delicate collection of heartbreaking, hopeful and introspective compositions that bleed from the speakers and take the listener far, far away. Opting for a minimalist approach, each song has acres of space and every instrument seems carefully considered and measured. Avoiding the perhaps more obvious instrumentation, Sleep Decade have done a little experimenting and it shines through. These subtle nuances and cadences often helping the emotive lyrics find context.
The album begins with the slow burning Car At Night, which reveals itself with the help of some (dare I say) progressive percussion. Vocalist Casey Hartnett keeps the lyrics simple and poignant, almost chanting a mantra, “All this came from is love”. Following on from this, Mexico peeks its head out with some more great percussion and the aching lyrics are complemented perfectly by the classical guitar. Although only slight, Bicycle and Seesaw, track three and four respectively, offer a change in the tone and pace of the record – they have a flash of lazy sunshine about them. Stereograph Of You emerges with eerie, industrial guitars and almost feels like it might morph into Explosions In The Sky type post-rock. Instead it becomes a vulnerable instrumental, that acts as intermission to the second half of the record. In the second half of the album things get slightly suicidal. Still beautiful and subtle, but fucking morbid. The harmonies become haunting, the already shaky vocals become even more fragile and the lyrics – oh, the lyrics. “And the way her best friends stare at you/It’s hypocrisy/Raining over head.” It all culminates in the ninth track Monster. As far as break up songs go, file this next to Nothing Compares 2 U. “Come at me/With your knives drawn/Stab me in the heart/Stab me in the dark/When I can’t see.” Things don’t get much brighter on closer Fourth Floor Longing with the album finishing in a manic, feverish daze.
Into Spinning Lights is an impressive and promising debut album from Sleep Decade. One that will have a profound affect on any listener that submits themselves to the experience.
BY JACK PARSONS
Best Track: Mexico
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: For Emma, Forever Ago BON IVER, The xx THE XX
In A Word: Heavy
