by Katie Holliday (@crookedsunshine)
In July, Post-Trash exclusively premiered “Genetic Cousins” from Sleepies' latest full length, Natural Selection. As summer draws to a close, it seems time to reflect on the album as a whole. Ten carefully crafted tracks, just shy of half an hour, highlight all of our favorite things about New York’s Sleepies. Dense rhythmic layers, a wide range of heterogeneous textures, and lyrics that make you contemplate your very human existence, are all peppered throughout the album, often with just the right amount distortion and vocal emotion. Natural Selection is a sonic adventure into the complexities of the human equation and our innate desire to be more than animal.
In many ways, the album is an emergent evolution of its’ own, released nearly a decade after Sleepies got their start. Largely, the band sticks to their poppy post-punk roots, but we also hear a dash of more psychedelic influence on Natural Selection. Muddy at times, vibrant at others, the album is certainly a descendant of their earlier works, while also thematically a continuation of their contemplations about what it means to be an intellectual creature with feelings. Additionally, Natural Selection marks a step forward in overall production quality.
The album’s centerpiece, “All Happening” takes a nod at natural selection itself, “one helpless man gets happy... line up for a terrible time, one terrestrial man gets lucky.” While other tracks focus on the grander understanding of continuing existence, “If I was first for reincarnation I’d dig out a hole and dive in it/ If I was first for reincarnation/ I’d catch a ride on a light and melt in it.“ So go on, dive into a percussion soaked album, replete with deep melodic intervals and multifaceted guitar riffs. Let the strong bass lines carry you through this tizzy of worldly expression. Natural Selection is a reflective album to which we can all relate.