Review Summary: Frank would be proud.
Let's start off with a simple statement; Sleep Party people definitely know how to capture your attention.
Dressing up in costumes to make a band more memorable is a tactic which has been done many times before e.g Slipknot, Lordi, The Aquabats, GWAR, Devo. The thing is though, of these bands who like to play 'Dress-up', only the metal ones are mainly remembered for their costumes. So what is so special about Sleep Party People besides the bunny hats and hoods which make them so special if encountered?
Maybe it's the wall of electronic noise style that they play? No, it's more than that. Maybe it's the powerfully melodic wall of noise style they play? More likely. However, this isn't really the 'My Bloody 'Valentine' wall of noise sound you might be expecting. Sleep Party People's sound could much more easily be called, 'Very dynamic lullabies for the twisted'. The band manage to get everything that is good about dream-pop and combine it with everything that is good about Noise rock and Shoegaze. They succeed in using reverberated keyboard samples, crisp angular drums and slightly distorted delayed guitar chords to create a fitting outline melody for most of their songs. Whenever this isn't happening though, acoustic guitars, pianos and less used instruments like Harpsichords and Glockenspiels make sure that during the breaks there is still plenty going on to enjoy. And you should. One thing I will say about this album as a fact, is that it will almost definitely make you smile at how cute some of it is, and make you cry inside at how emotionally sounding the rest is.
Did I mention the ethereal vocals? The lyrics are pretty much incomprehensible and free of linguistic meaning. What it may lack in linguistic meaning though, it certainly makes up for with the accidental powerful emotion it holds. Listening to 'I'm not human at all' the same four lines are repeated over and over. Two of them can be made out. "I'm not human at all/ I have no heart". It may not seem like much on it's own, possibly something bands like 'My chemical romance' would have come up with in their spare time. Now sing it in Steven Hawking's voice but much higher and with more than one note. Still sounds a bit odd doesn't it? Now listen to the song. Words cannot describe how they manage it, but those two lines manage to be extremely moving.
It's very hard to go more into depth with an album like this. It's very hard to go into the deeper meaning of it as most of the lyrics aren't understandable. What is understandable though is that the sound this band creates is immense. If you like the idea of 'M83' mixed at times with 'My Bloody Valentine', listen to this album as soon as you can. If the idea of distorted incomprehensible vocals have put you off, listen anyway, you might be surprised at what you hear.
