FEVER

Now, that´s what I call improvement! Sleepy Sun´s sophmore release is a great leap forward when compared with Embrace, their debut of two years earlier. The songs are much more well structured, the arrangements are more concise and inventive and the the vocal department is a LOT better now. Even Bret Constantino´s singing, so sloppy and irritating on Embrace, is now focused and, let´s say, melodic. And, of course, Rachel Fannan´s voice is beautiful as it was earlier on, but she is featured more proeminent at last.

There are some great use of acoustic guitars and the general sound now leans towards a more country/blues/folk approach, although the psychedelic noisy electric guitars are still present on every track, even if the barrage of feedback, distorted sounds, is better used here, and is under more control than before. Drums are still very 60´s styled too, along with those vintage fuzz tone guitars. But Fever´s best features are the new compositions: they are becoming quite original and interesting. The band´s on their way to produce a very own sound and certainly this new CD shows a promising group growing fast.

Conclusion: although this kind of music is not one of my favorites, I cannot deny that Sleepy Sun has its charm and will certainly be quite appealing to the fans of early american pyschedelic rock. I´m looking forward to hear what they´ll do next. I hope they keep developing their music as much. My personal taste keeps me from giving Fever a 4 star rating, but for their general improvement I can´t give it just a mere 3. 3,5 stars is more fitting. Fans of the style, don´t miss this one!