WL//WH Premiere SLEEPING PILLS
Stalwarts of the Tampa, Florida alternative music scene since 2015, the post-punk/dream pop seasiders Sleeping Pills, led by singer-songwriter Phil Taylor, unveils their new 6th studio album, “Patterns in the Sea”, while celebrating 10 years of activity, through a slightly different line-up with the return, to complement the drummer, Nate Irizarry, of the original bass player, Chris Horn (Merchandise, Blood Wave) and the addition of a third guitarist, Hector Laguna (Cretin Girls, Dead Feeling), to the live roster.
Drawing influences from Diiv, Masayoshi Takanaka, The Freeze and Clorox Girls, the three-pice develops further the bright and catchy guitar-laden aesthetic, with the inbred underlying gloomy post-punk underbelly, of the previous 2024 album “Occulting Light”, tweaking around with denser and sharper edges, through simultaneously atmospheric, highly emotional, and achingly introspective 8 songs, softened by a tormented melancholy, that builds an intense and earnest push‑and‑pull of raw and intimate moods, heavily stitched and woven by an impassioned, intricate 6-string work.
From the outset dynamic shifting drumming and snaky bass pulses drive into a bouncing and sparkling 6-string whirl that swings and strums nostalgically on the bittersweet, passionately thorny tremolo leads of the retro-tinged “In Your Sleep”, brooding about a romantic partner’s blissful ignorance with restless dreaminess as with “Parking Lot”, a song that ponders the community aspect of live shows with obsessively ascending and descending crisp twangy-toned lines and wailing, resonant leads.
Still layered with, at times jagged, insistent piercing strains yet more subtle and farther away, “Soaring” flows with a smooth feel that carries calm, elated vocals on a soothing voyage for two toward the sun and moon.
But the good vibes are short-lived, as they revolve into the beautifully brooding and gloomy “Lost” (at sea), bringing back spiky crystalline obsessions, fueled by vibrant, ragged, even droning riffs, with epic angsty peaks, swaying together with wistful vocals looking doubtfully at a light in the distance.
Next the pace slows to reflect how it feels to love someone from afar, as life keeps moving on into a murky, shimmery strummed melancholia, haunted by twangy twinges and light gloomy distortions, stirred by bitter longing and regret in “Ever Flowing”, before transitioning once again toward the aeronautical space of “Whirling”, a striking lift into a nostalgic jangling and prickly ramble around calm, joyful vocals, cloaked in the vaguely psychedelic muffled sensations one might perceive while travelling through a lush sea or a vast sun-stained sky.
Only to fall back down to the wobbly, desolate earth of the deeply affecting, Pains of Being Pure at Heart-esque, “The Bridge”, grounded by urgent off-tempo drum beats and humming bass lines, tangling an abrasively sorrowful, anxiously arpeggiated and scraped outpouring of passionate jangling guitar strings, bleeding against anxious, sad vocals, deeply torn and devastated, when a loved ones true colors are revealed in a time of dire need.
The album ends with “Desire Burning”, an unpredictable trip down the memory lane of early 90s UK danceable shoegaze, that bridges propulsive shuffling groovy rhythms and snaky bass pulses, chugging along a spirited build up of energetic serrated riffs and agonizing ringing weeping leads, to epically pull the tension forward on top of conflicted, bitter vocals, trying desperately to heal by participating in Fate.
A journey of self-discovery through a lens of relationships, disconnection, spiritual elevation, and desire, “Patterns in the Sea” is above all a statement of a long-running, devotedly crafted, dedicated musicianship and forthright expressive immediacy from a band bold enough to push further with each release.
Sleeping Pills will play their record release show on 2/13 at the Bends in St Pete, Florida, with Carson Cox (Merchandise, Neon Blood, Church Whip) and Ortrotasce (a local st pete darkwave rave artist).
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