Newcastle’s Deep.sleep blend sunshine sounds with anxiety-laced lyrics in their highly-anticipated double-release ‘You And I’ / ‘Her And I’.
Emerging in 2017 and drawing comparisons with a young The 1975 – the band have been championed by the likes of Fred Perry as a talent from the Toon to be reckoned with. After kicking off 2020 with absolute bop ‘Mathilda’ – the four-piece have been busy live streaming plus selling out three socially-distanced lockdown shows in their native North East.
But they’ve also been making music. This release is a tale of two halves. Leading track ‘You And I’ is catchy as it is captivating. A radio-friendly tune which ticks all the right indie-pop boxes with strong riffs, synth-pop melodies and a sing-a-long chorus. But behind the sunny exterior lies a deeper comment on anxiety, fear of losing someone and even elements of toxic masculinity.
Vocalist Dan Frend sings of sleepless nights and the pressure to ‘man-up’ during a time of anxiety in a relationship.
“Man-up / Act Tough / Are you sleeping alone?”
“…I’m not really sleeping lately.”
Its a theme that drifts into the second half of the release – accompanying B-side ‘Her And I ‘ – albeit in a quieter way. Slowing down the pace, there’s some pretty beautiful and haunting harmonies in this one. Dan’s echoey vocals dance across acoustic guitar as he reflects..
“..if I knew who you wanted / I could’ve changed”
Its the idea of holding in these feelings that will be relatable to a lot of men who are plagued with such archaic concepts even in 2020.
From the dreamy days of ‘Soho’ and ‘1994’ to now – Deep.sleep have managed to retain their feel-good vibe, whilst showcasing a real maturity and relatability to their work. Don’t sleep on this one.