Although relatively unheralded, Sleep Weather isn’t necessarily new to the Atlanta emo scene. They’ve only released five songs in two years, but the quartet has kept themselves busy by regularly playing shows, many of which have seen them open for nationally touring bands. The group’s 2014 EP, Two Wheels Spinning, straddled the line between post-hardcore and post-rock with heavy, driven guitar parts giving way to more simple, melodramatic melodies that sat somewhere in the vein of This Will Destroy You—shifts that relieved the listener from the predominant gloominess of the band’s lyrics.
In February, Sleep Weather released a video for “Fog on the Glass,” the introductory single to their new LP Lake Joy, which is out today. The video was directed and produced by Robbie Grantham and Scott Strickland, and visually, it’s stunning. Sure, it plays on some common emo tropes — a lone dude playing guitar in an abandoned house at dusk, a child’s innocence saving the jaded grown-up from a lonely suicide—but it’s colorful and bright, and an interesting juxtaposition to the track.
Production-wise, “Fog on the Glass” is certainly more refined than any of the tracks from Two Wheels Spinning. Lyrically, the song captures the angst that defines the genre, but with more mature sentimentalities: “I want to bleed into the backdrop of you / and watch these lights fade into one / An endless wash of color pulling me down / folding me inside out.” While by no means groundbreaking—it’s hard to reinvent the wheel that is post-hardcore music—there is a subtle progression in the group’s approach to writing and arranging songs, which will hopefully be found throughout Lake Joy.
More Info
Bandcamp: sleepweather.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @sleepweather
Instagram: @sleepweather
Twitter: @SleepWeather