'Sleepwalkers' - album discussion & poll

ivienco wrote:

StateOfMind wrote:

Okay this is really bugging me.. in the song sleepwalkers what is he singing ‘i will find you in a dream, in between the needles and the _____?’

Needles and pins!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rLqPtZUWJI the Ramones made this song pretty famous.

Or just the fact that needles and pins/pins and needles is a super common expression.

Wow. Some serious choruses in this record.

Just one spin through and I don't think there's anything that feels like filler.

Having a hard time stack ranking anything yet to pick a favorite. Sleepwalkers and Watson are definitely gut reaction standouts for me, but often with TGA/Brian/Crowes the ones that jumped out first and the ones I wasn't initially swept by totally swap places. But those two songs... unreal choruses/outros.

Not too much of a departure for Brian, same chords with an organ behind it, Etta James could've literally been on Elsie and fit right in, but that aside there are noticeable evolutions.

More optimistic sounding/feeling than anything since maybe Slang. His vocal syncopation is different in many places in a good way, there is more thought to melodies here than what we got in some songs off Painkillers.

More mo-town feeling funky grooves. Like if Slang-era TGA invited every musician in a black church in the south to play Elsie with them, Sleepwalkers would be the result. There's a distinctly 'cool' sheen here.

Several of the songs have a super nostalgic "vintage" quality.. there are songs on this record both you and your grandma would dance on the hardwood to.

Excited to spend more time with it. Usually the sleeper tracks come to the front once the lyrics settle in (happened with Open All Night, Mae, etc)

EDIT: I'm on pass 2 and seem to have forgotten how good all these other tracks are too. Come Wander With Me has a nice chorus. Her Majesty's Service chorus is also addicting, MAN! I can't wait to turn this record up in the car and drive!!

EDIT 2: On the first listen I thought Proof of Life might be lower on the list but this song is pretty good too.

EDIT 3: I think I can cross off Little Nightmares and Neptune from "favorite on the record" candidacy for me. Still amazing songs, I don't think they'll become future 'skip's but they aren't giving me the heebie jeebies I get with most of the rest of the record.

Gumption wrote:

Love the Eddie & the Cruisers reference.

Oh, the "season in hell" line in Neptune -- I'd bet that it's actually a reference to Arthur Rimbaud's poem "A Season in Hell", which Brian has mentioned as one of his favorites a bunch of times.

eagles1139 wrote:

Gumption wrote:

Love the Eddie & the Cruisers reference.

Oh, the "season in hell" line in Neptune -- I'd bet that it's actually a reference to Arthur Rimbaud's poem "A Season in Hell", which Brian has mentioned as one of his favorites a bunch of times.

No

Okay, decision made. Watson. All around amazing tune. I get that feeling from it that Open All Night gave me (my personal standout tune from Painkillers).

Am I missing something? Is it streaming somewhere?

Trosky19 wrote:

Am I missing something? Is it streaming somewhere?

It leaked a few days ago. We can't share download links here, but it's find-able.

I see Kerrang gave the album an 80 (as per Metacritic - so likely 4 out of 5 stars is the scale).

Here's the excerpt:

Quote :

Light and breezy strummer Her majesty's Service occasionally reads like a string of Fallon-isms (rolling stones, a girl named Elsie, etc.), but it's blown away by the hulking brass of Sleepwalkers, which straddles the line between grandness and outrageousness perfectly. [10 Feb 2018, p.52]

Anyone have the magazine and can share the full review for us? Thanks!

Source: http://www.metacritic.com/music/sleepwalkers/brian-fallon/critic-reviews

Only listened to the album a few times but I'm already in love. Can't wait for the tour now!

I've noticed that Brian has mentioned 'Lily' in a few lyrics now on this record and on 'Rosemary'. Anyone know if this is a recurring character or is she the new 'Maria'?

Happy release day everyone!

OMG Etta James

miked331 wrote:

Pretty blown away by this. Will have more input later and yes Etta James is pretty amazing but the title track kind of blew me away

Yea same here. Jazz funeral what? So loving this album. And yea you can see how well my resolve to wait for the in-store held up.

Definitely feels more like an Elsie followup than a Painkillers followup (both of which I loved). I've listened to it 2 times now and I'm enjoying it a lot.

I hear in sleepwalkers two major Jersey shore sound artists- Bruce of course, and a new one..... Mr Johnny Lyon, aka Southside Johnny. "Sleepwalkers" just screams it, and I love it.

JimmyB wrote:

I hear in sleepwalkers two major Jersey shore sound artists- Bruce of course, and a new one..... Mr Johnny Lyon, aka Southside Johnny. "Sleepwalkers" just screams it, and I love it.

Agreed 100%. It sounds very Southside Johnny-esque. That jumped out instantly at me.

I don't think there's a bad track on this album. Feels a lot more complete than Painkillers - will be interesting to see what and how he plays this live.

Highlights for me are Etta James and Little Nightmares. I think both will sound amazing live.

One other thing..Anyone pick up on the similarities between the lyrics of The Queen of Lower Chelsea and Etta James?

QoLC: American girls, they want the whole world

Etta James: And all we wanted was absolutely everything

Attax wrote:

One other thing..Anyone pick up on the similarities between the lyrics of The Queen of Lower Chelsea and Etta James?

QoLC: American girls, they want the whole world

Etta James: And all we wanted was absolutely everything

There are a handful of references back! They feel like little Easter eggs for fans. Perhaps Brian knows most of the people who will listen to this record have been following his projects for years and will feel a connection to those references.

Only a few come to the top of my head now...

"and Elsie singing, 'how does it feel?'" in Her Majesty's Service obvious reference to Elsie

"what it's like to be a rolling stone" also in HMS - could be reference to Rollin' and Tumblin' and I believe rolling stones are reference elsewhere

Some 'sound' things that COULD be lack of creativity but could also be intentional references, the end of Come Wander With Me is very similar to Blue Dahlia, and the bridge of Watson guitar chords, pattern, and effect are basically identical to Too Much Blood intro/verse chords. Again not sure if intentional reference or not but I kinda like to view it that way

References I've gotten so far
Bob Dylan- "what's it like to be a rolling stone" Like a rolling stone
The Rolling Stones "Wild Horses Couldn't drag me away"
"Hungry Young Lions" I swear I've heard that before.
"Never fit in, never fit right" wherefore art thou Elvis.
Watson, I get a feeling of Jakob Dylan 's "6th Ave heartache"
"Sleepwalkers" Springsteen and Southside Johnny style.
Come Wander with me, sounds like it's actually got a "U2" rhythm and maybe a Bass line in their style.

Loving the whole thing...favourites so far are Little Nightmares and Sleepwalkers, but I’m still waiting for the vinyl to give it a really good blast.

The bit about pretending his daddy was a bank robber has to be a Clash reference, right? Other ones I noticed were ‘The kids are alright’ (The Who) and Lily and very foolish things presumably are references to Painkillers. There’s also the name Rudy in Come Wander with me, which given the style of the song is probably a reference to the Specials.

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The "you're just too good a ship to wreck" line in Come Wander with Me seems like a reference to the Florence + the Machine song "Ship to Wreck." That song is also on his spotify playlist, so I'm guessing it is.

Practically ever song on this record is a stone cold banger, but if I had to pick early standouts I'd go with the title track (that intro!), Little Nightmares, and Watson.

I feel like this is The River of his discography. It's his most musically eclectic work to date, features some of his strongest writing, and sounds like he had a blast making it. Very much looking forward to seeing these songs live!

If this is his river, his next one might be pretty dark, or maybe Elsie was his "Nebraska"

Why so little love for 'Proof of Life'?

The slide guitar in Watson sounds so George Harrison haha, what an incredible song.

And great vocal performance, especially on the outro: The one that got away!