The Sleeping – What It Takes
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Alternative rock / Post-Hardcore
On their third album, The Sleeping continues on a well-worn path of post-hardcore, alternative rock that exploded a million bands toward the end of the first half of this decade. While most might roll their eyes at this endeavor because, well, let’s face it, most of the scene’s audience has moved on, and only the die-hard fans of specific bands stuck around at the party, there’s still something to enjoy on What It Takes.
What The Sleeping has going for them is a sort of maturity to their musical approach (think the early years of Thursday). Sure, the band is, for the most part, taking big liberties emulating Rise Against, but they temper that approach on this album with added elements of keyboards and Theremin (just take a listen to the up-tempo anthem, “Friday Night”), ultimately giving them a wide palette from which to pull ideas for tracks.
The band is good and tight on straight-out rockers (“He Only Sees Where He Walks” and “You’ll Be a Corpse Before Your Time”), and can infuse a real sense of urgency when called to do so (“Refusive Relationship” and the deliberate, blistering “Bomb the World”). There are even moments when it almost creates a ‘70s vibe (“Ripped Dress” with its groove-laden guitar work).
For every clichéd moment (the sing-a-long on album closer “Deadbeast”, for example), there’s some really memorable stuff on here. The creative vocal approach on “Shallow Lungs” and the mellow setting of “Running Faster” (reminiscent of early Straylight Run material) seem to stand out most.
Then there’s the two strongest tracks on the album—the tempo-shifting “Should Have Let Me Leave”, that again draws comparison to Thursday (but is that really a bad thing?) and the slower “Anyone Night Stand” that weaves a terrific tale of regret.
What It Takes is a solid outing and is definitely the best of the The Sleeping’s catalogue up to this point. Comparisons to other bands aside, the group really sounds tight and is making music that may fall into a bloated, dying genre, but does so with enough soul and talent to make the material more important than the scene.
