Album - The Sleepy Jackson - Personality

Written by The Dish | Tuesday, September 26, 2006 |

Named after a former narcoleptic drummer, The Sleepy Jackson are back with their second album, ‘Personality – One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird’. Three years have elapsed since their debut album ‘Lovers’ and now the band consists of two core members – Luke Steele (Perth’s answer to Brian Wilson) and Malcolm Clark – although extra musicians are drafted in for live shows.

The album kicks off with ‘You Needed More’, a lovely, twinkly pop song that, even at the end of September, makes you think of warm summer evenings in the park. The summeryness continues with second track ‘Devil Was In My Yard’, before ‘God Leads Your Soul’ introduces a slightly gospel feel thanks to the great backing vocals and trumpets.

More prominent backing vocals are in force during ‘Work Alone’ and ‘God Knows’ – the latter’s slightly quicker pace providing an effective break from the previous mid-tempo tracks. The sublime ‘I Understand What You Want But I Just Don’t Agree’ is sung as a duet and is a definite highlight on the album.

The clear vocals and simple acoustic sounds on ‘Miles Away’ are refreshing to hear after lots of trumpets, strings and pianos on the previous tracks, and this song adds an extra dimension to an album that sounds as though it could easily have been produced by Phil Spector. ‘Higher Than Hell’ returns with the fantastic symphonies, which then continue into the excellent ‘Play A Little Bit For Love’. ‘Don’t Say’ kicks off with a little bit of electronica and has a brilliantly catchy chorus. This combination probably makes it the most commercially accessible track on the album and another highlight.

‘You Won’t Bring People Down In My Town’ has a strong Pet Sounds-era feel to it, with the prominent Sixties-style “la la la” backing vocals, and penultimate track ‘Dream On’ almost sounds like Diana Ross is singing in places. The final song on the album, ‘How Was I Supposed To Know’, starts off softly and acoustically before the strings and backing vocals kick in for the chorus.

Overall, this is an excellent and sumptuous album. It has a very summery Sixties sound to it and you can’t help but feel relaxed when you listen to it. Luke Steele’s voice is at times reminiscent of Brett Anderson’s from Suede and The Tears but sounds a lot less forced. The paradox between uplifting tunes and quite dark lyrics is very clever and not immediately noticeable. Although Luke Steele is clearly influenced by Brian Wilson, he has avoided trying to copy him and has made an album that almost sounds closer to jazz than rock’n’roll – the music is less structured and is more experimental. Although this album may not be an immediate favourite, it will rapidly grow on you and before long you will wonder how you survived without something this gorgeous in your record collection.

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