Sleepy Sun doesn’t know the meaning of the word short-cut. Fever is an album brimming with subtle nuances and big risks by a band that decided to shoot for the moon instead of settling for a mediocre record of the same old shit.
The album opens with a six and a half minute opus called “Marina” that dips into heavy psych rock and breezy folk that finds vocalist Rachel Williams singing like an angel. Then Bret Constantino and Williams magically intertwine their vocals in a delicate acoustic number, “Rigamaroo” that sounds like it could have been cut in a living room. It’s comfy and confident.
Other highlights include the bluesy harmonica jam that springs out of nowhere on “Desert God,” the texture in the background of the folksy “Ooh Boy,” and the nearly 10 minute closer, “Sandstorm Woman.”
I love Sleepy Sun’s ambition. More importantly, I love how they executed their ideas.‚ A lesser band may have spit out a clusterfuck of noise, but Sleepy Sun hits all the right notes to make Fever a gem.
Northern Cali rockers, Sleepy Sun, deliver a psychedelic stoner rock gem of a debut with last year’s Embrace. At the end of each year, I post the top 10 albums we missed from the year before. I’ll save you all the trouble of guessing what my top miss of ’09 will be. It is this bouillabaisse of prog, metal, folk and feedback that has struck a nerve with me this early in 2010.
Embrace was produced by Colin Stewart, who also manned the board for Black Mountain’s In The Future. The similarities with Black Mountain are evident though the album. The most compelling similarity is in the male/female vocal interplay. Bret Constantino and Rachel Williams of Sleepy Sun complement one another much like Stephen McBean and Amber Webber of Black Mountain.
Rachel is particularly haunting on “Sleepy Son” where the music breaks and she delivers her vocals before the band launches into a feedback laden jam. At one point near the end, it sounds like she is straining every fiber to be heard over the feedback. It is a brilliant nuance in a fantastic tune.
On the album’s final track, “Duet With The Northern Sky,” Constantino and Williams deliver a hazy folk number that is absolutely striking after the terrorizing jam on the previous track, “Snow Goddess.” My nerves were frayed and “Duet” was the perfect calm after the storm.
Every song on Embrace contains twists and turns making it brilliant. In fact, I managed to write this review without even mentioning my favorite songs, “Lord” and “New Age.” Sleepy Sun will be running around Austin during SXSW. If you dig bands like the aforementioned Black Mountain or anything Ethan Miller has his hand involved in, I suggest adding them to your must-see list. They are certainly on mine.
