Advertise with The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover Issue #94
Recordings
MORE Recordings >>
Subscribe to The Big Takeover

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs


Follow us on Instagram

Follow The Big Takeover

The Sleepy Haunts - bloom, Vol. 1 (Drop Out Records)

18 January 2024

“Bubble Grunge” is a term I haven’t heard before; I suspected it was one that The Sleepy Haunts made up to describe their own music until I did some research. You learn something every day, huh. But do you know what? As a tag, it’s perfect. It brilliantly describes their deft blend of infectious pop grooves, which underpin their more grinding, gritty, and grungey delivery.

And while that term is great, even that doesn’t do justice to the range of music found on their EP, bloom Vol. 1. Opener, “why do I feel this way?” (man, their cavalier attitude towards capitalization is pissing off my spell-checker) might fit that label like a glove, a velvet lined, spiky leather glove, but “standing, waiting” is a chiming, and indeed charming, alt-pop ballad from the other end of the sonic spectrum.

“Peter Parker” returns us to more driven musical climes, and arrives at the end of a long line of scuzzy pop-rockers. It would sit perfectly in the scene that surrounded the likes of The Darling Buds, *The Primitives, and Transvision Vamp back in the day and bands such as Beach Bunny and, in their more understated moments, Frankie Cosmos in more recent times.

bloom Vol. 1 rounds off, quite aptly, with “the end (the morning after),” a heartarching, acoustic ballad that adds even more musical dimension to their musical resume.

“Bubble Grunge.” What a great generic tag. I’m stealing that.

Website
Spotify
Soundcloud
Instagram
YouTube