SLEEPING WITH SIRENS

American post-hardcore merchants Sleeping With Sirens return with their sophomore album, 'Let's Cheers To This', their follow up to last year's 'With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear'. I always approach bands with caution and cynicism when they're labelled as "post"-whatever as such branding often turns out to be misleading; a blatant attempt to "colour" journalists and music fans' listening experience with the promise of something innovative or generically iconoclastic. So, labels aside, the music Sleeping With Sirens make is actually melodically infused, heavied-up rock/metal with a prominent dose of mellower/ambient passages, using mainly clean vocals but also sporadic hardcore shrieks. Add to that mix some neatly placed acoustic guitar and keyboard sounds with an effective use of programmed elements, and 'Let's Cheers To This' becomes a fairly engaging listen. Fronted by Kellin Quinn, with no prior knowledge of the band, one could be forgiven for believing that's a typo and should, in actual fact, read "Kellie Quinn", for his falsetto vocals sound, on initial listen, distinctly female. However, this is a strength of the band's overall sound as he's able to accentuate the emotion in the instrumentation by using the full, wide range of his voice. A quick glance at the CD booklet is quite telling as with two pages of small-print thanks lists it seems Sleeping With Sirens are a grateful, jovial bunch of peeps and this relative buoyance is audibly transferred into the compositions and their execution on what is, a very well produced and mixed collection of songs. Produced by Kris Crummett alongside the band themselves, it's Crummett who's responsible for adding extra textures to the music, credited as he is with the additional instruments of "percussion, electronics, piano & strings". Sleeping With Sirens debut passed me by completely so I'm discovering the band afresh here and, to be honest, the post-hardcore tag is something that cries out genericism and music that I'd usually stay well clear of if I hadn't to review it but, against all my instincts and preconceptions, 'Let's Cheers To This' is rather good. Highlight has to be the predominantly mellow, acoustic-based piece 'All My Heart' as it showcases Quinn's vocals at their best; his style of singing is suited so well within the context of such an arrangement. Hopefully an all acoustic album will be forthcoming at some point in the band's career, or even as a side project for Quinn. Maybe one exists already, who knows. All in all though, if the post-hardcore label rouses similar preconceptions in your mind to my own, then I urge you to put those to one side and check out this surprisingly good album.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Rise Records

Album

LET'S CHEERS TO THIS

Review by Mark Holmes

RUNNING TIME:

40:33

RELEASE DATE:

30th May 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) Do It Now Remember It Later
2) If You Can't Hang
3) Who Are You Now
4) Four Corners and Two Sides
5) A Trophy Father's Trophy Son
6) Fire
7) Tally It Up, Settle the Score
8) Your Nickel Ain't Worth My Dime
9) Postcards and Polaroids
10) All My Heart
11) Let's Cheers to This

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

USA

"Fronted by Kellin Quinn, with no prior knowledge of the band, one could be forgiven for believing that's a typo and should, in actual fact, read "Kellie Quinn", for his falsetto vocals sound, on initial listen, distinctly female. However, this is a strength of the band's overall sound as he's able to accentuate the emotion in the instrumentation by using the full, wide range of his voice."