Category:
Rock

Try if you like:
Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, Shines, Silversun Pickups, The Stills

Oh Wintersleep, why have I waited so long to hear you? I have been hearing quite a bit about this Canadian East Coast band but it's only now, Welcome To The Night Sky, where my ear has been graced with their wonderful indie pop sound. Really, if you don't listen to anything else this year make sure you hear this album. This album has been out for quite some time here in Canada but just recently it has been slated for global distribution and well deservedly. 

When I was listening to this I had a little bit of Shins shine through but there is a roots flavor giving it a slight My Morning Jacket tinge to their sound. Some of their tracks become quite hypnotic like the cleverly repetitive "Weighty Ghost". It could be considered the album's highlight, but there is much more to this multi-dimensional album than one song.

There are many times when Wintersleep ends up sounding very emotional (no, they aren't "emo") like on "Search Party", a slow and stirring dirge. It's not all hypnotic and emotional though. Wintersleep get some pretty decent rock tracks out the door on "Oblivion", a song that would feel right at home on a modern rock station. "Laser Beam" is close to that but a little more adventurous. There is a little technical wizardry that happens on the album closer, "Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks", a lovely track that is instrumental for the first 4 minutes or so, it just seems to go on forever and you hope it does. It could be a Mogwai song with the dynamics involved. 

Overall, Welcome To The Night Sky is one of the best albums to come out of Canada in a while.