Spread the Social Love:

Wintersleep - Hello Hum [Album]

Can Wintersleep finally reach giddy heights with the fifth release

by matthewfrench, June 30th, 2012 and has been Read 756 times.
Last Edited by: Chris MUG5 Maguire June 30th, 2012.

Sticking things out in the music business is hard work, but for Canadian four-piece Wintersleep, sticking it out seems to be all part of the game. Four albums down the line and it’s fair to say that Wintersleep haven’t had the best of success. It would seem that Wintersleep lack something that their fellow countrymen, Arcade Fire, quite clearly have, a previous review stating that Wintersleep are “on a par with Band of Horses”. Yeah, perhaps the odd song might gave such an opinion. Songs such as ‘Weighty Ghost’ from their Welcome To The Night Sky album brought some mediocre success but apart from these tiny flutters nothing really aroused Wintersleep'saudience.

But perhaps Wintersleep don’t care much for record sales and tickets, maybe they do it for the sheer fun of it; surely we cannot knock them for that? However you see Wintersleep's lacking, it hasn’t stalled their creativity and Hello Hum, their latest release, perhaps reaches the pinnacle of this activity; redrawing the floor plan of their previous attempts to perhaps build a lasting structure. Hello Hum takes the refined indie template of it’s predecessors and knocks the sides over, making a simple shape seem all the more exciting. Everything about their latest offering has more depth, more holistic detail which, in turn, creates something all encompassing.



There’s certainly something different in the dynamics. The pleasures at full-length are perhaps subtle but all the more noticeable. Album opener ‘Hum’ arouses the senses and you are tricked into thinking that this is the work of another band; making you swat for that fly that seems trapped inside your mind. Percussion is used for texture as much as timekeeping, shakers, handclaps and floor toms share equal measure with snares and hi-hats as the tempos roll leisurely in songs like ‘Nothing Is Anything’ and ‘Resuscitate.’ The latter echoes something of Gardens & Villa. Synths become as key as the fuzzy guitars; wobbles and distortion are left to take hold in ‘In Came The Flood,’ adding something ever so slightly avant garde about Hello Hum.



The vocals are not overpowered or left fighting for space but seem to clasp the hand of their fellow musical counterparts, making for a tight bond as Wintersleep rise confidently, brooding, bellowing and stalking the listener. Wintersleep leave you sensing that Paul Murphy knows the albums worth. Pure indie rock hangs with the spouts of sonics causing you to be slightly fearful of its presence and being vaguely reminiscent of Tribes with ‘Rapture’ and ‘Unzipper’. As the trickle-down effect takes hold, the experimentalism drops but, Wintersleep go some way into balancing - adding some smart spacing as to make you realise it still is Wintersleep you’re listening to.

Although there are moments that ebb and flow back into the Wintersleep of old, it is still plainly clear that Wintersleep have put great effort into breaking out of the norm, applying a newly crafter cachet, forcing you to re-assess your previous opinion of Wintersleep. There are moments that feel fresh, bold and new around a web of everything we came to like with songs such as ‘Weighty Ghost’ and ‘Dead Letter & The Infinite Yes.’

All signs would point to the fact that Hello Hum is finally the album that puts Wintersleep “on par with the Band Of Horses” with its pop charm. If it doesn’t, god only knows what they do next.