This platinum selling album brings back great memories of 1996 to me; Uni, way too many cheap drinks, fabulous mates, club nights and some great music including this absolute belter from Sleeper.
Rereleased for its 25th anniversary (man alive, I’m old), this is Sleeper’s second album and features the singles ‘Sale Of The Century’, ‘What Do I Do Now’, ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ and ‘Statuesque’. To the casual listener I would recommend buying the album on the strength of those tracks alone but there is some much more quality on this LP.
The record is filled with jangly indie-pop songs about, amongst other things, the struggle of being a women with beauty and brains, the boredom of suburbia, and starting relationships with old men in the hope they cark it and you inherit their money - I’m looking at you ‘Nice Guy Eddie’.
All that delivered via Louise Wener’s delicate, breathy vocals layered over some proper rollicking new wave inspired BritPop from the ‘Sleeper-blokes’ (the nickname the press came up with at the time to describe the almost anonymous men in a female-fronted band).
If any of that sounds like it would raise a ‘Football’s Coming Home’ flag up your pole then the album is available all over the place now. There are some signed copies available from Rough Trade on red vinyl which also comes with a bonus CD of selected B-sides and 4-track home demos. Unfortunately, this Sleeper Store exclusive green vinyl is sold out
Tracks To Try: ‘Lie Detector’, ‘Sale Of The Century’, ‘Feeling Peaky’, ‘Dress Like Your Mother’, ‘Statuesque’, ‘Nice Guy Eddie’.
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