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Elly Roberts reviews

The Sleeping Years: We’re Becoming Islands One By One

Distributed by
Rocket Girl Records

Released: June 2008

Rating: 6/10

Vote and comment on this album:

For many years Dale Grundle has lived in the shadow of Damien Rice.

Much of the mood is similar to Rice’s penchant melancholy, but doesn’t have the killer tracks to put him up there at the top with his Irish compatriot.

One very attractive element to his work is his bitter-sweet and often achingly beautiful and fragile voice. Somehow, unless major radio playlists pick up on something, Grundle is destined to emulate his involvement with former band the Catchers in the late '90s.

Many of the songs are well-crafted with a charm of their own, but Rice casts a long shadow over tracks like Setting Fire To Sleepy Towns with Michelle So’s cello providing the sadness. Lockkeeper’s Cottage has as similar hue with Grundle picking gently his acoustic while So again adds the heartfelt colours.

The mould is broken on the beat-driven and jaunty You And Me... while Macosquin, Coleraine goes more for the Americana template. This one is punctuated by handclaps and sprinklings of acoustic driving it to the close.

The pace and mood is lifted considerably for radio friendly Clocks and Clones, making it arguably one of only two that would fare reasonably well as a single. The other is Human Blues, using a stab start as the song’s hook.

Keys and drums feature heavily as Grundle’s sweet vocal glides magnificently above the mellow mood. You begin to think that So’s cello is going to deliver that ‘moment’ Rice has mastered, but never happens which is disappointing. Nevertheless it’s the best song here.

The last two are his weakest songs by far, and his effort to build up a crescendo for Islands falls way short of the intended impact. Apart from Human Blues and Clocks and Clones, nothing really gives you the Wow! Factor.

File under: A fair way to go, to hit the spot.

Weblink: myspace.com/thesleepingyears / thesleepingyears.com

The full list of tracks included are :

1. Setting Fire To Sleepy Towns 2. The Lockkeeper’s Cottage 3. You And Me Against The World 4. The Shape Of Things To Come 5. Macosquin, Coleraine 6. Broken Homes 7. Clocks And Clones 8. Human Blues 9. Dressed For Rain 10. Islands

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

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