Album Review: Art Of Sleeping - Shake Shiver

13 July 2015 | 10:26 am | Matt MacMaster

"The production is handsome and clean, while the boys get an A for colouring between the lines (and they are bright, summery colours)."

Brisbane’s Art Of Sleeping play music that’s the indie rock equivalent of that hot lacrosse guy from American Pie: dumb as bricks with charisma to spare and a heart of pure gold. Their new LP, Shake Shiver, is full of glistening hooks and politely boisterous tales of love and heartache played over and over for the better part of an hour, with the thematic sophistication of an eighth grader’s secret diary. It’s a curious mixture of reckless emotional abandon and aggressive predictability.

There’s no denying that earworms like Win Your Heart and Voodoo are catchy as shit, and the feather-light ballad Burning Bright slips around your cynical defences with ruthless efficiency, but taken as a whole the album feels incredibly familiar and as such it evaporates when done. The Js are chock full of this kind of stuff already, and zero risks are taken at any point to stand out from the pack. Perhaps to expect more would be to miss the point — this is an enjoyable album! The production is handsome and clean, while the boys get an A for colouring between the lines (and they are bright, summery colours, much like their 2012 EP, Like A Thief).

There’s a strong your-mum-would-love-this vibe which partially derails the goodwill the guys generate with their slick musicianship boasting lovely two-part harmonies and a strong, steady pace that ticks along like clockwork.

It’s very unlikely Shake Shiver will make you do either, but as far as innocuous box-tickers go, it’s really quite charming.

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