Simeon
Sleepy Eyes
Bobby J Records

While recorded in North Carolina, this appeared on the local Bobby J label, so I wanted to say a little something about it. This is a plaintive and personal, yet inexplicably pop record. I find myself straying far from the indie poppy fields of late, but this record is the closest I've come to being drawn back into its embrace.

Stand-outs for me lie in the sprawl of longer songs like The Wind and Sweat Me (both side one) that combine the cryptic whispers and skitters of Skip Spence's Grey/Afro with the boop-teet of a drum machine that will unfortunately be held up to (or against) Mr. Oldham's Arise Therefore. What separates Mr. Oldham from Mr. Berklee is that while the former is just "trying" to be different, the latter is truly doing something very different, very personal, and is already far down that Misunderstood Highway. Pick him up, for his thumb and his record is out.

Copyright © 1998 Andy Beta