Album Review: Sleep Parade - Inside/Out

Were you to listen to Sleep Parade's latest effort directly after having listened to their debut album, Things Can Always Change, you could easily be convinced the two releases were products of separate musicians (that is, if frontman Leigh Davies' power-driven, elongated vocals weren't so distinguishable). The five years between albums has seen a great deal of experimentation come into play for the outfit – experimentation that has been both implemented and refined quite well, resulting in a mostly schmick and richly textured second album. As it stands, it isn't really all that exciting.

In most scenarios, the former half of an album is generally the stronger half, with the last handful of tracks either feeling like a bundle of filler or simply a punish to power through. Inside/Out, however, seems to function the opposite way. It really isn't until the album runs its course that things start to become musically interesting. Even with a few different arrangements here and there in tracks like the more restrained 2:09, the structure of a good portion of the album – most notably Footsteps and Dancing With The Enemy – are quite formulaic and fairly tedious. Beyond Mirrors, tracks begin to open up and become more impressive in their construction, particularly in the vocal delivery. The same can't really be said for the lyrics (The River is a rather cheesy retelling of aging), but their repetition becomes less of an occurrence.

Once you push past the onslaught of fairly generic rock that presents itself for quite a dominant duration of the album, Sleep Parade prove that they're able to switch things up a little and write music with a bit of heart.