Labels: Toxic Pop
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I have kind of given up on the 7″ as a format that I listen to that often. I am sure that once you have a certain number of records, that this happens to almost everyone. Seven inches are fiddly, they only last a few minutes and then you flip it or put another one on. In an age of MP3 simplicity, where a digital entity chooses the next song you will listen to, and the only input you have is that you can elect to skip it’s fickle choices, singles seem so quaint. I still enjoy slapping on a single, but after once around I’ll invariably migrate back towards an LP. Regardless though of the fact that I am getting older and older, I am always eager to discover that most perfect of creations, the awesome seven inch. Where for 10 minutes, a band is on fire, inciting air guitar, air drumming, toe tapping or gyrating in the chair. Sleepwall have accomplished that with this astonishing single. It is, simply, as good a single as I have heard since I have no idea. Three songs, none of them really that similar to the other, but all stunningly executed. “Come in From the Cold” occupies an entire side of vinyl at 33rpm and it sees the band start out as a most divine take on 1990s indie rock. Throw Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr and Archers of Loaf into a pit, and eventually they would fashion instruments from the bones of the first to die, and write a song that sounds like this. Stupendous. A riot. It cruises. The drumming blows my mind. It does on every track to be honest. It’s the sweet spot. The tip top. What a great song. Flip the wax and you get “Sleepwalkers”, which curiously sounds like what if Current and Dinosaur Jr got together. It kicks off as a driving, melodic emo effort, with angry yelled / spoken vocals. Great vocals. And it rumbles. Then bursts into these indie rock bits with tambourines and then a guitar solo. Love it. It all falls apart at the end in quite the perfect fashion. The final surprise in store is the powerful punk rock they finish off on, “This World Is Too Dark” kicks in with more ace drumming and guitar chords and suddenly you think you’re listening to a song that Leatherface should have put on “Mush” but for some reason didn’t. Why didn’t they? This song is so good. The best melodic punk song I have heard since maybe the Gibbons LP or something.
So, Sleepwall – 3 different songs, basically they could form 3 bands, each playing one of the styles on this single, and record 3 great LPs, I reckon. I will surely punch a guy in the face if they never record an LP, it will be a massive travesty. Get this thing.