Do you know that when I first heard Irishman Dale Grundle's The Sleeping Years, back in May of last year, I thought this would be a great unknown band to post about and I did just that... post about them. In fact I began the post like this, "So, you want to hear your new favourite unsigned band?", and I then proceeded to talk about the mysterous allure of Grundle's quietly seductive vocals. Well, guess what? The Sleeping Years have got a recording to offer now and it's called You and Me Against the World and this is how Mr Grundle describes the new five track EP: "The "You And Me Against The World" EP will be limited to 500 copies in unique hand-made sleeves designed by Pika Pika, numbered and signed by me. Each cd is in a wrap-around card sleeve featuring printed lyrics. The card sleeve is contained in beautiful hand-stitched cloth with a name tag attached."The title track is the special one here for it gives you not only Grundle's voice, but it delivers it wrapped in a catchy melody. When you first hear him in that title track, the name John Darnielle is quite likely to float to the surface, there's a near frantic edge to his voice, albeit one that is dulled and sweetened in comparision to Darnielle's agitation. In fact his vocal is an interesting cross between the Mountain Goat and the Decemberists' Colin Meloy. Although this early impression will be washed away by listening to "Dressed For Rain" (you can stream the song on his myspace page linked below) where his voice is sad, confidential, and quietly his and his alone. He is a one man band here on this recording and a definite talent musically, vocally, and lyrically. This is a fantastic song, one of those rare treats that grow in favour the more you hear it.
you and me against the world If this music moves you, you would do yourself a favour to look into the music of his former band, Catchers.
You And Me Against The World Tracklist (release date - March 21):
1. You and me against the world (acoustic)
2. The lockkeeper's cottage (acoustic)
3. The 22nd house
4. Dressed for rain
5. How long have you waited?
Official Site * Myspace * Buy - The Sleeping Years * More MP3s
Great write up, and thanks for doing the introductions on this one - unfortunately I had to hypem the mp3 as your link appears to be broken. Anyway it's a quite utterly gorgeous track; a relaxing massage for weary ears. I definitely hear COlin Meloy in there, but also some Davey Von Bohlen with a hint of Brian Molko, but that's probably just me! Anyway I'm off to pre-order the EP and then get spreading the word.
ReplyDeletegreat song!
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great song!
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