Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia

Yup, Even In Arcadia I gotta put up with this crap. Well, at least, that’s what I assume the title of Sleep Token’s much malaised most recent album is trying to say. Could be more like “who woulda thunk it, Even In Arcadia?!” Definitely not some kind of tied score in the Arcadian Sportsball League Championship Quarter Finals. Whatever it is, it can also be found in Arcadia, wherever the hell that is.

I know exactly Vessel, Sleep, and like 4 songs about Sleep Token, so there’s not really much let down this 4th album can throw at me, other than turning out to be a crummy album that doesn’t stick to the concept or form a coherent perspective. I suspect it will, I might even enjoy it. Only one way to find out.

I wonder if they know the cover looks like Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part III? Not a deal breaker, it’s just that’s what the pink foliage/black flamingo make me think of. I can’t imagine anyone confusing Foals and Sleep Token, though; they are not similar. Oh boy, double album ‘cause they’re songs are long. Again, not a deal breaker, it’s just obvious that vinyl is not the original intended medium. Or, maybe it was, maybe I’m the only jerk left who thinks records are for 30 to 36 minute ideas. I’m okay with that.

.

Jeez, Loiuse, this trifold nonsense is unruly. At least it will sit straight on the shelf (backward), and there’s lots of cool 90s vapor-wave architecture to enjoy as we Look To Windward, what with its  nintendo-sad synths and complete lack of what I’ve come to expect as Sleep Token Vocal Reverb. The drop is pretty nice and surprising, though. Starts to actually sound like Sleep token halfway through

Oooooh! The concept is Even In [insert religious garden metaphor] I’m a despised, outcast stranger. I mean, you play Post-Nu-Djent-Soul, so maybe don’t take being niche quite so personal? Unrelated, I don’t know where I got the notion Sleep is a She, Sleep is very definitely a He/Him.

Wowzers, the cognitive distance between track 2 and 3 is, uh, unfathomably expansive. I’ll just finish out part 1.

Ok, so at least the first half is about leaving your old life, starting a new one, and feeling real conflicted about the purgatory of the actual transition. Then, out of nowhere, your crazy ex-boyfriend shows up. Maybe Vessel wouldn’t describe it that way, but that’s the story: Things are gonna be swell… crap, my past came back to haunt me. I got no problem with Part 1. Stylistically, it’s a bit jarring, but I think that’s kind of the point. Directionless hope with a cliffhanger, Sharknado ending. Shit’s about to stop being polite, and start getting real.

Part II looks like a lot of Ancient Greek Philosophical Metagarble, so we’ll just let it play as I ramble. I don’t think it’s at all unfair to call Vessel an unreliable narrator. His voice is literally distorted, his viewpoint is inconsistent and shortsighted, he speaks in tropes and metaphors because that’s all he knows. He’s ungrounded, he’s confused by completely normal human experience, he is in short the personification of “manipulated.” Life isn’t a story, yet he’s constantly t-boned every time he rolls out into the intersection even though he had plenty of time to slow down during the yellow light. I’m gonna go ahead and blame it on defining yourself as the sole disciple of a God you made up. 

Maybe it’s too on the nose to point out that Sleep is the opposite of Woke. The hell? “Robot lover” and Midwest Mathcore? Doesn’t matter, it’s still that same we’re not on the same page style monologue. It’s really hard to tell what the narrator is supposed to be in a lot of these songs, especially since Sleep is obviously singing parts of them. Unreliable narrator again, what’s being said by Vessel, what’s being said by Sleep, are the two even actually different, or is Vessel just Sleep imagining himself? 

I don’t hate the second half at all, but it does come across as fluff, padding, 4 more songs for the sake of an 11 track album. I feel like I completely got the point in the first 6. Sonically, part 2 is a satisfyingly terrible depiction of getting back together with your shitty ex-boyfriend, but I kind of feel like the cliffhanger ending is exactly the right stopping point. We don’t need you to actually realize the shitstorm. Maybe you’ll liken it to something else, but for me, personally, it sounds like the US version of Magical Mystery Tour where they just added some other random Beatles songs to make it an LP. Tarkus also springs to mind. 

Everybody, listen. It’s perfectly lovely to just make an EP. I like EPs. I prefer EPs. Use the other songs from that session as substitutes, release non-album singles like the good old days. I’ll honestly probably never listen to sides III and IV ever again. I don’t hate them, but I definitely don’t need them, the first 6 were the actual album, and it was really good.