Electric President
Sleep Well
Morr Music

Sleep Well is the second album from Electric President, who are the two gents Ben Cooper and Alex Kane. Last year Cooper's solo project Radical Face's Ghost (also the Morr label) was on top on my top-of-the-year list. Electric President is also good, but is this as pleasant as their 2006 debut (s/t, Morr)? Not to mention their cool singles You Have the Right to Remain Awesome, volumes 1 and 2.

Electric President have been playing as a formal project since 2000, and their dreamy electronica pop is quite soothing and pleasing stuff. In a way they also make me think of Grandaddy styled pop (without the guitars), much thank to the vocals. Add Sparklehorse's dim and dark soundscapes, plus Death Cab For Cutie's sweet'n'sad melancholia and you're somewhere near. Sleep Well is a 'noir' collection of songs, and sort of a 'nightmare' theme album. Starting with "Monster", ending with "When It's Black" (as 'side D' - the second side of the included 7" with the vinyl edition). The latter being their most rocky piece and really a tough and cool song. There's even a ghost theme here, as on Cooper's (Radical Face) Ghost of last year, with a song entitled "We Will Walk Through Walls". All in all Sleep Well is a very, very good album. Even better than their first. And quite different in style and tone compared to that one. It's even further beyond the Radical Face stuff. And almost as good.

Sleep Well will make you sleep well. Not that it makes you fall asleep all of a sudden, in the sense of making you drowsy, but give you the purest tranquillity for a perfect night's sleep.

Copyright © 2008 Håvard Oppøyen