It’s hard to know when you read a press release for a new EP whether pointing out that that the tracks on the EP have been recently been ‘popping up in TV shows and commercials’ is actually an endorsement of the release or not. It’s a claim made by the press release for Her Space Holiday’s Sleepy Tigers EP and having taken the time to listen to the release I can only conclude that my long held beliefs about the taste and style of advertising executives hasn’t been challenged much.
Sleepy Tigers is out on LA based label Mush Records, home to quality artists such as Clouddead. The title track is a fairly effective pop tune with aspirations to the more quirky pop output of the Beta Band and no doubt destined to be featured on mobile phone or iTunes advertisements.
The EP’s second and third tracks, ‘Just Another Day’ and ‘This Seat is Definitely Taken’, follow in the same footsteps as the opener, but don’t quite meet the mark set by ‘Sleepy Tigers’, continuing with the quirky pop agenda with the same attempts at ironic, witty lyrics but that just end up coming across as slightly insipid.
‘Slightly insipid’ would be an understatement when describing the final track on the EP, ‘Same Song Sing Along’, which is an infantile grating tune with absolutely no redeeming features of note. Cut in the vein of some of Belle and Sebastian’s childen’s classic style tunes, ‘Same Song Sing Along’ is a self conscious attempt to garner some art house indie cred that simply doesn’t pay off.
This is a pretty uninspiring release that will no doubt prove useful fodder for advertising executives and shows strong future career for the band in the event that there is a vacancy any time soon on the Wiggles.
Gordon Finlayson
