Long Beard
Sleepwalker
Reviewed by: Fareeha Naim
If you’re looking for something minimalist and melodic, look no more than Long Beard’s debut album, Sleepwalker. New Jersey native Leslie Bear creates haunting tones and drifting rhythms with minimal instrumentation and vocals. It’s a muddled, slow, textured kind of indie rock, meshing with a smooth dreampop that creates the effect of a surreal state.
Opening with a stretching intro that soon melds into their single “Porch,” a rhythmic guitar driven track with a less clear vocal line, the album mingles with an ethereal feel that reflects Leslie Bear’s four year journey to creating Sleepwalker. Calculated and precise, the moods elicited are awe, love, and memory. “Morning Ghost” features a hollow, echoing tone; “Turkeys” creates a feeling of wanting to be loved; the looping and clanking in “Summer Fall” makes for a fuzzier yet all still pleasing sound. Bear’s hypnotic voice coupled with the guitars and drums and electronic mixes intertwine for 13 solid tracks. Together, the album is going beyond the understood definition of the indie genre and putting its own interpretation into the music.
Sleepwalker is youthful purity and confusion at its core. Vocals that change from whispering to distinct, tracks that shift between heavy and minimal, and lyrics that move from romantic to reminiscing, these ideals bite at each other, but ultimately end up in harmony. Melancholy and intimate, Sleepwalker is an album you don’t want to miss.
Rating: Bad-Ass
