Believe What We Tell You (Enhanced)The SleepingVictory RecordsThree out of five stars
I hate enhanced CDs. What a waste of time.
The Sleeping’s re-release of its debut album, Believe What We Tell You, somehow accomplishes everything its original release did, except this time it’s making money for Victory Records instead of the label One Day Savior.
Yay, capitalism!
Believe What We Tell You comes from the post-everything scene. Following in the tradition of Taking Back Sunday, From Autumn to Ashes and whatever else Long Island produces, The Sleeping’s sound could be characterized as screamo-prog.
And the band does it well. Song structures indicate a bit of maturity, and vocals don’t overpower what’s being accomplished musically: guitar chugs, melodies and bass bursts.
The harmonics could be better for Believe What We Tell You, but, all in all, the band allows the listener to get the idea, as well as a range of above-average sounds.
Mixing and production is adequate at best, and a couple things bog down the album, such as refrains. Occasionally, The Sleeping’s lyrical refrains are terrible. Some might think they’re genius, but for me, the repetition of “If your heart was broken?you’d be dead!” is entirely unoriginal. Tacking on importance to the lamest lyrics just kills me, especially because lyrically, Believe What We Tell You isn’t bad (although calling the band good would be a stretch).
The enhanced version comes with a couple extra tracks and a DVD that takes too long to get to the menu. There’s also a farce on merchandise–which shamelessly promotes their merchandise–along with an intolerably long amateur documentary that made me give up on watching the rest. Seriously, I only get paid so much for one review.
The second time around, Believe What We Tell You isn’t any better?but possibly more annoying.
Enhanced? What a joke!