Sleeper’s new single ‘End Of The World’ is a clarion call for the forthcoming album of the same name. If you know anything about Sleeper then know that Louise Wener can write hooks for days. There are very few bands from the 1990s that still play live and still send an audience in paroxysms of bouncing joy. Sleeper sit in a rarefied list that includes Pulp, Blur, and Suede.
But the real skill is to write new songs that do not try and simply mine the DNA of a band’s back catalogue but show exactly why they were so successful in the first place. ‘End Of The World’ is such a song, it bursts out of a full fat drum beat into a wall of sound that abates in the verses so breathy vocals can preach “If I walk off the earth, will I hit the ground, it’s a long way down, but you can’t hurt me now”. The chorus explodes into life with the kind of force that would dislodge masonry.
Louise Wener says of the single, “It’s a song about breaking free. The moment you turn round and say: Enough. I’m done. Whoever is hurting you – a partner, a family member, a way of life that no longer fits – leaving may feel like your world is ending. It might also be the most liberating thing you can do.”
The sentiment of the song feels like the band have found a way of making fuel out of pessimism in order to power optimism. If you see Sleeper live (and I have many times) you will see a huge number of dedicated fans who were there at the beginning when the band were riding high on chart success, magazine covers, TV shows and much more, but since they reunited in 2017 there is that wonderful moment when new generations join the die-hard fans that had posters of the band on their bedroom wall in the 90s. As the the band say in their recent email, “We’ve all come a long way together. To old fans and new, if you’ve ever loved an album of ours or connected with a Sleeper song, we think you’re really going to love this record.”
‘End Of The World’ should easily garner new fans, but loyal fans new and old will surely jump up and down just as wildly to this as they do for ‘Inbetweener’ and ‘Sale of the Century’.
The End Of The World album is released on 12 February 2027 and you can pre-order the CD, vinyl, special editions, t-shirts and more on the bands own website here.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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