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Written by Brian Polk
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Tuesday, 15 May 2007 |
Until the World is Happy; Wake up you Sleepyhead Sun
No Sleep Records
C When a band wears its influences on its sleeve, it runs the risk of being forever contextualized as an inferior knock-off.
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 Musical expression is all about finding a niche and doing whatever a band can do to sound unique and fresh, not trying to one-up the most talented acts in the industry. Despite a group brimming with talent, Small Leaks Sink Ships falls hopelessly into the category of trite emulation.
If At the Drive-In made sweet love to Drive Like Jehu while listening to Minus the Bear, the resulting child would sound something like Small Leaks Sink Ships, but only if it received all the recessive genes. Not that there aren’t highlights on the album: “Sackloth in Ashes” and “Shake” exhibits traces of the band’s originality. But the innovation is short-lived with tracks like “Gutter of Disneyland” and just about every other song on the album sounding uncomfortably close to the group’s predecessors. | How groundbreaking can a band make music in a genre that has already been pushed to the limits by more talented musicians? While Small Leaks Sink Ships maintains glimmers of potential, Until the World is Happy; Wake up you Sleepyhead Sun—which has about the worst album title in history—spends more time resuscitating its post-hardcore forefathers than it does creating history of its own.
myspace.com/smallleakssinkships
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