Album Review: Sleepy Sun - Spine Hits

Psychedelic rock five-piece Sleepy Sun finally have their third album, Spine Hits, released locally after no small amount of indie press hype. The band are All Tomorrow's Parties darlings, playing numerous incarnations of the festival and having the label release all of their records, so there comes a certain expectation when Stivey Pond kicks the record off.

The song, as anyone familiar with the band has come to expect, straddles the line between full-on freak-out psychedelic madness (like, say, contemporaries Goat) and more middle of the line psych-influenced acts like My Morning Jacket. It's a little awkward and never quite finds its groove, despite dripping with crunchy guitar and delightfully stoner groove. And this, we learn, is the album's prerogative.

Without co-vocalist Rachel Fannan's presence on the record, main man Bret Constantino is forced to handle the rough and smooth-edged textures of the band's sonic explorations. This, surprisingly, works largely in the group's favour, with forced compromise proving to lead to some great moments; the juxtaposition between album highlights, the mellow, almost Beach Boy-esque Boat Trip and groovy, danceable psych noise of Martyr's Mantra, shows how well the group have adjusted to the single vocalist idea.

The album never quite delivers the promises it hints at throughout; take Still Breathing, a track that drones itself into a near Velvet Underground or Spacemen 3 level of repetitive noise, but ends with an acoustic ballad. Were either side as polished as the ideal, this could be an utterly sublime record. As it stands, Spine Hits is an indicator of a band torn between ideas, sketches of songs that could potentially bring the house down live, but only simmer on the record.