This band have more celebrity endorsements than Red Nose day .The albums sleeve notes thank Mark Radcliffe , Stuart Maconie, Marc Riley ,Lauren Laverne , Zane Lowe ,Dermot O'Leary ( Wot...rather than Eoghan Quigg ?) Bob Harris and Guy Garvey (who cited their December single
The Last of the Melting Snow his favourite song of 2008) for their support. You can add me to that salubrious list for what it,s worth ( precisely zero i would imagine). This is a great album .
Singer/multi-instrumentalist Nick Hemming (ukulele, mandolin, banjo, sitar, autoharp, guitar amongst many others) and keyboardist Christian Hardy form the core of the group, with striking arrangements also including strings, flute, pedal steel, glockenspiel, clarinet and erm...talking bowl among other instruments. Hemming used to be in a group with film maker Shane Meadows and shares his acute eye for minute detail and resonant empathy with his subject matter.
Their music has been likened to Americana with a pastoral English bent and that's a pretty good way to describe it. They do sound quintessentially English. So i hear strains of XTC circa
Skylarking in the strings on the title track and the aforementioned "The Last Of The Melting Snow" reminds me of a band called Dakota Suite
The End of Trying who also specialised in radiant but forlorn ballads. There is a real pop sensibility on a track like "Save It For Someone Who Cares" while "The Darkest Place I Know" could come off an Eno
Here Come the Warm JetsTaking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) solo album with it's lilting magnificence.
The album does throw in a few feints just to keep the listener on their metaphorical toes. The clippity clop arrangement on "Are You Happy ?", the rustic wig-out at the end of "Save It For Someone Who Cares" and the splendid new single "In A Matter Of Time" which combines the observational mien of The Kinks and Squeeze set to a tune both would be proud of.
So plenty of cracking tunes, some pithy lyrics -"Here's another name to add to your collection /She lacks in desire what I lack in direction "- pleasant easy on the ear vocals and a genuinely intriguing sound and approach - like a restrained Rockingbirds doing The Handsome Family , make The Sleeper one of the must have albums of the year so far. The title is surely an indication that this group view themselves as a band that will insidiously worm their way into the affections . They are being overly modest. One listen and you will be hooked. To keep the sleep metaphor going this is the stuff of discreet dreams.