The Leisure Society – The Sleeper
The Leisure Society - The Sleeper
It would seem that the history of The Leisure Society has now entered pop-folklore – or should that be folk-pop-folklore?
After primordial stints first in a band featuring film director Shane Meadows and actor Paddy Considine, and then Burton-on-Trent’s The Telescopes, Nick Hemming began contributing music to the aforementioned film-maker movies under the moniker of The Leisure Society. 2005 was the year for everything to fall into place proper when he hooked up with fellow wayward musical journeyman Christian Hardy (he of Christian Silva). After a heady period of messing about with ukuleles, glockenspiels and flutes, the managed to pull together The Sleeper, their first release. And it was worth the wait too, containing as it does a fine collection of seductive chocolate box folk-pop.
Reductively lauded by critics as “the British Fleet Foxes”, The Sleeper is perhaps this year’s first perfect spring-time record; sure it’s a little blowy, bedraggled and misty in places, but it’s buoyed by the realisation that sunnier times are just around the corner and soon to gently kiss the apple blossom dry.
As part of Brighton’s Willkommen Collective (alongside Sons of Noel & Adrian and Shoreline, MoonshineMoonshine to name but a few), The Leisure Society’s influences are appropriately wide and uninhibited. There’s a heavy dose of Belle & Sebastian to be sure, but the injection of banjos and ukuleles adds fuzzy shades of shambolic Americana too; a sound that begs comparison to that of a LSD-fuelled primary school orchestra playing Johnny Cash covers.
The shimmering guitar and finely brushed drums of opener ‘ Give Yourself a Fighting Chance’ set the record up nicely and the final quietly upbeat chorus (“I’m going to change my circumstance/To give myself a fighting chance”) adds layers of gorgeous vocal harmonies that combine to produce a lush and fluffy wall of sonic cotton wool.
A deep, resonant piano might have driven things into irrevocably sullen territory on lead single ‘The Last of the Melting Snow’, but the guitar chimes and sugar sweet violin halt a descent into darkness, aided no end by the charming sound of Hemmings’s hand sliding around on the guitar neck
That violin soars to gloriously melancholic heights once more on ‘A Short Weekend Begins with Longing ‘, whilst ‘We Were Wasted’ is a haunting yet refreshingly down-to-earth narrative that recounts a drunken trip from nightclub to home.
Often, Hemmings’s dark lyrical sojourns are muddied by the jaunty, sweet feistiness of the instrumentation, a piquant subterfuge that serves only to charm you into actively deconstructing every strum, breath and chord in an effort to reveal every tiny nuance of the track.
‘Save It For Someone Who Cares’ is more playful, lackadaisical almost, with bracing traces of flute and a fantastic over-the-top speedy ending, and this is complemented perfectly by the handclaps, and glockenspiel chimes of ‘The Darkest Place I Know’.
Second single ‘A Matter of Time’ is full-blown folk-pop of the highest quality; an understated epic that draws together all the sonic strands that have preceded it and twists them together into an attractive yet muscular knot that’s virtually unpickable. “She lacks in desire what I lack in direction” stands as one of the album’s finest lyrics also; so simple, yet so stirring.
‘The Sleeper’ is a complex yet accessible record that stands up to multiple repeat listens. Each spin reveals something new and fresh and there’s a real joy to be had in catching the one detail you didn’t get last time around. There’s also a solid lyrical maturity here that is delightfully offset by a cheeky sense of humour and a playfulness that suggests a huge lack of ego. The musicianship is never less than excellent and the production bang on the money, all of which make it a sure bet that The Leisure Society is one act to keep a beady eye on.
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