Birds & Batteries - I'll Never Sleep Again

Year: 2007
Label: Self-released
Style: Alt. rock, alt.country
Location: Aquarius Records, San Francisco
Medium: CD
Condition: Used
Dollar diamond or dud: Diamond

Info:A few of you might remember this from one of my other blogs. It fits in here too. Here's what I said about it the first time:

Well, okay, imagine this: Right after cutting "Heart of Gold," Neil Young has a Nostradamus-esque prescient vision and is shown a music world that's filled with Tortoises, Kid-As, and clickin' and cuttin'. He runs into the studio and cuts a record that's half twangy Americana country/folk and half electronically manipulated madness with woozy synths and enough bleeps and bloops to make every song sound like a Deep Blue mating call. After reading that, there's a natural inclination to stick I'll Never Sleep Again right next to similar electro-enhanced rootsy albums like Songs: Ohia's Ghost Tropic--and one must admit that Mike Sempert's vocals are as close as you can get to Jason Molina without having to build a tenor guitar to properly accompany them--but Birds & Batteries's songs are far more richly layered, coming close to almost Beatlesque pop at points; just, you know, with synths. It's an interesting touch that keeps the album straddling the glory years of early '70s country rock (Young, Parsons, etc.) and the modern peaks and valleys of dub-influenced post-rock. At the very least, the first four songs are worth a listen. The "Heart of Gold" cover nearly eclipses the original and "I'll Never Sleep Again" sneaked into my top ten list last year; a slowed-down number that shimmers with melancholy and just begs to be slipped into the CD player any time you drive past long n' lonely pastures that are only illuminated by headlights n' moonlight.

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