Wintersleep: Welcome To The Night Sky (2007)-Adam Fisch
Wintersleep: Welcome to the Night Sky (2007)
By Adam Fisch
Final tracks are often throwaways at best (The Beatles’ "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road) and extended wankfests at worst (Nirvana’s "Endless, Nameless" on an otherwise perfect Nevermind). Sometimes, though, the best place to start is the end. With the last song on Welcome to the Night Sky, "Miasmal Smoke & the Yellow Bellied Freaks", Wintersleep bucks the trend and provides as good a place as any to begin deconstructing the stellar third record from the eastern Canadian group.
For those unfamiliar with the band’s sound, the track represents all that is good and pure in the world of Wintersleep. Combining lilting melodies and uplifting chord changes with the crash of distorted guitars and the Keith Moon-inspired drumming of Loel Campbell, the newly minted quintet has created a natural progression of sound that proves an evolution from their first two self titled records.
The album’s first single, "Weighty Ghost", already receiving heavy airplay in their native Canada, is one of the weakest songs on the record, and a rather lackluster introduction to a band whose sound is more often fit for a shivery, quiet drive in a midnight snowstorm than the pleasant, nonconfrontational realm of pop radio. Otherwise, the record moves easily, with songs that have just enough structure to stay on course but enough looseness to create perfect background to a long trip. The leadoff, "Drunk on Aluminum", consists mostly of singer Paul Murphy and an acoustic guitar, as the band’s fans have come to expect, before building into a frenzy of cryptic lyrics and pounding beat. While in itself as strong a song as any they’ve had, many of the songs progress this way, and the pattern does begin to become predictable over the course of the record.
Still, their weak spots are stronger than most bands at their peak, and whether it’s Paul’s lyrics on "Search Party" (I used to dream about saving the world/ Now I just dream about the holidays) or the straightforward rock of "Astronaut" and "Oblivion", there are few indie rock fans who couldn’t find something to love about this record. Their first record is still their best, but this reviewer hasn’t heard a better new album than Welcome to the Night Sky this year, from beginning to end.
Copyright C. 2008 Adam Fisch