The Big Sleep "Sleep Forever" French Kiss Sounds like: An extraordinary amount of sleep, if such a thing involved being enveloped by bricks
It's remarkable how fitting the name The Big Sleep is. In fact, this Brooklyn trio's name lends itself to one of the "sleepiest" records in recent memory. This isn't to say that The Big Sleep is the first band to combine "big" music with "sleepy" music, but it's their execution that makes them noteworthy.
The Big Sleep makes perfect sense in the context of today's music. Bands such as Isis and Red Sparowes have taken ideas from hazy shoe gaze but aimed them closer toward straight-on metal. The Big Sleep, with songs such as "The Big Guns," which employ the immediacy of Black Sabbath while retaining the cerebral feel of shoe gaze, represent the next logical step in this trend.
Occupying this musical area is highly beneficial for the band, which has an uncanny intuition: They know when to rock 'n' roll and when to go ethereal. As a result, the record is impeccably paced.
Anyone who had an attention span of next to zero while listening to mostly instrumental metal before certainly won't have this problem with "Sleep Forever," which operates alternately as a chugging rock record with shoe gaze tendencies and vice versa. This alternation works to great effect as the band soars and smashes in the same song, with hardly a change between the two.
The Big Sleep has room to grow, however. Vocal efforts are nothing more than modern rock cliches and truly ruin some songs. Many melodies feel underdeveloped. However, the record is overall high quality and shows lots of potential for this new band.
-CAMERON CONWAY
