If
Welcome to the Night Sky by
Wintersleep was a TV show, it would be
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It’s enjoyable and light-hearted (and not afraid to briefly explore darker moods) but ultimately predictable and unfulfilling.
For this reason, I have decided to review the CD in the form of a script from the aforementioned TV show!
Opening Song. Fade in. The Banks residence, living room. Uncle Phil is asleep on the sofa and Carlton is lying on another sofa listening to the stereo through headphones. He is smiling and tapping his feet. It is snowing outside.
Enter Will, full of energy. Will: (loudly) Hey, Carlton – little man!
(audience laughter) What chu doin?
Carlton: (shocked, removes one headphone to converse with Will. He whispers loudly) Shhhh! You’ll wake dad!
Will: (feigning concern) Oh no, we wouldn’t want to wake the
slumbering whale-monster!
Will impersonates Uncle Phil and lumbers around the living room, demanding hamburgers in a giant’s voice. Uncle Phil stirs only slightly. Audience laughter. Will: Anyway, what beats are you rockin’ Carlton?
Carlton: (defensive, he looks around the room for cues. He looks outside and sees the snow) Um.. Winter..
(he looks at Uncle Phil, asleep) ..Sleep. Wintersleep. Wintersleep!
Will: Wintersleep? Welcome to the Night Sky?! Man, that’s old-school. I heard that when it came out
over a year ago! What you think of it, bro?
Carlton: (defensive, it becomes clear he isn’t listening to Wintersleep and has no idea who they are) Um.. its.. rad.
(Then, with over-the-top sarcasm) Why what do you think of it, oh great and knowledgable Will?
(audience laughter) Will: I’m glad you asked. I like it, man – those Canadians finally got something right!
(audience laughter) From what I remember, I was entertained by it. Musically, it often reminded me of
There Is Nothing Left To Lose by
Foo Fighters, with the vocal melodies of
The Killers and the group backing vocals of
Port O’Brien. Wintersleep’s musicianship, and the drumming in particular, was excellent throughout but the album as a whole was generally unchallenging. Which is cool if that's what you dig! The only exception was stand-out track
Murderer where the interesting time and key signature, along with the menacingly tight interplay between kick drum and bass culminated in a darker, more rewarding listening experience, dawg!
(audience laughter) Enter Jazzy Jeff, to rapturous applause.
Exit Jazzy Jeff. Carlton looks bemused by Will’s opinion and Will realises that he isn’t listening to Wintersleep at all. Will: Hey, man – what you really listening to?!
A struggle ensues as Will tries to wrestle the headphones from Carlton. During the struggle, the headphones are pulled from the stereo and ‘It’s Not Unusual’ by Tom Jones comes blaring out at full volume.
Carlton does a funny dance to the track for 27 minutes, with the audience clapping along and whooping.
The dance ends after Carlton has removed his shirt, revealing a surprisingly muscular physique. A few seconds of silence pass, and Uncle Phil is still sound asleep.
Will: (whispering) Shhh you dum-dum, you’ll wake Uncle Phil!
Uncle Phil stirs and wakes up with a start. Uncle Phil: WIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
Will looks directly into the camera with a cheeky expression and shrugs his shoulders for 3 minutes. Audience laughter throughout.
Fade out.
Roll credits. 
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