The Sleeping Years – We’re Becoming Islands One by One

26 August 2008, Allan @ 6:30 pm The Sleeping Years Were Becoming Islands One by One

The Sleeping Years are an acoustic/folk group out of London, England. They are a 4 person group who play a host of instruments with Michelle So playing cello rather then traditional bass and leadsinger (or owner of the project, I just assumed his band was part of it) Dale Grundle lending his hand to guitar, bass, piano, harmonica and ebow.

I really felt compelled to check out We’re Becoming Islands One by One with the song You And Me Against The World. I wasn’t sure about the song title, thinking I’ve seen many titles like that but really the song is so incredibly beautiful with the opening:

“From the harbour hill to where the crescent curls, the black water swell, the turning of the world. Strung lights and drunken sounds glimmer at the edges of your town. We were hiding for so long with everyone else all trying to hold on but that time has gone now”

Absolutely brilliantly song writer that really creates a dreamy/gloomy atmosphere all at the same time. The musicianship? Even better. There’s just so much going on even if the songs remain somewhat somber or too quiet. There’s an intricate arrangement especially with the amount of instruments that Grundle is able to play.

It’s easy to compare this to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago due to the atmosphere in which that album was created but this album is just better on a fundamental level. Other then the backstory to Bon Iver’s recording there’s much more left to be desired on the production and musical level in comparison.

At one point though I did find both albums to have that “bland” feeling. It’s more about the style more then anything. I try not to ask music to be not what it is but let it be what it is since it’s art isn’t it?

The album is good, maybe not great in my book due to style but really they would only be more popular if someone like Pitchfork reviewed them. It’s unfortunate that the internet is decided like that.

Rating: 4 out of 5
The real problem I guess is that the Sleeping Years/Dale Grundle don’t really come out of their shell and seem to stay within themselves. He’s amazingly talented though so while he can probably do a lot better, We’re Becoming Islands One by One is still very good. A perfect album to go to sleep to, they live up to their band name.

AWmusic