Sleepshell – Lost Birthdays

From America comes the one-man project Sleepshell. You might call the music by this project `American moodiness`, somewhat in the same vein as The Dresden Dolls and Faun Fables.

The music is melancholy and moody but not dark or depressive. Piano and slightly orchestrated keyboards set the tone of this record on ‘Intro’. ‘Train’ is a moody song dominated by a piano melody. The vocals make the track a bit lighter. This piece might raise the interest of fans of Coldplay and other indie bands in the same style.

After hearing the acoustic orientated first two tracks the electronic beat and electric guitar on ‘In The Snow’ is suprising. Again Coldplay springs to mind and even the melancholy side of Dinosaur Jr. Acoustic piano sounds dominate ‘Blue Coat’ again. It is another tranquil and atmospherical piece. Also the other two tracks are in this style.

Lost Birthdays is a small collection of decent songs, although they could use a sound more of their own. Nice is the lo-fi production (home recordings?) which fits the music very well. If Sleepshell is able to give his music a little bit more of a distinctive touch we might hear more from this project in the future.

artist: Sleepshell
label: self-released
details: cd-r, 6 tracks [sleepshell01]