REVIEW: The Sleeper - The Leisure Society

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Written by Anneliese Gillard

This is the album art for The Sleeper from The Leisure Society I wish I could join The Leisure Society. We'd all sit around, dressed sharp in trilby hats, sipping pims and lemonade or homebrew and pontificating about how to make the world a more beautiful place. It might get a bit awkward when they realise I can't play an instrument, but with the number of delicate percussive elements in The Sleeper, maybe they could let me play the triangle... they're a collective - they'd be up for that, right?

The Sleeper is the debut album from The Leisure Society, a quintessentially British group. Nick Hemming, the group's founder, describes the album's initial release as a cottage industry labour of love - conjuring up fantastical images of british pastoral scenes interspersed by an indie production line where each of the seven group members could craft their individual touch into each of the tracks. Strings, ukelele and Beatles'seque harmonies are all delivered with a kind of upbeat sun-just-breaking-through-the-clouds air.

This album is also supposed to come packaged with the group's eight-track EP A Product of the Ego Drain and its conspicuous absence is almost making me mad enough to get up out of my armchair - lucky the 11 tracks I do have are more than enough to induce some kind of languid state of utter relaxation and tranquility.

Already released in the UK last year, The Sleeper has been given the thumbs up not only by reviewers but by smug bastards like Brian Eno and Guy Harvey of Elbow fame. The Sleeper has even been voted #1 singer-songwriter album of 2009 by iTunes UK - so why did we have to wait so long to hear it here?

I can only speculate that The Leisure Society, as true gentlemen and women, are slightly embarrassed by their success. Rather than hitting the entire world in some kind of blitzkrieg, they're gently floating their harmonies and gorgeous lyrical compositions across the world so they can enjoy the trip. Perhaps that isn't just a metaphorical air balloon I see in that promo shot.

3.5/5 (losing 0.5 for absent EP)

Standout tracks: Save it For Someone Who Cares, A Matter of Time

The Sleeper is out now through Full Time Hobby / Inertia