Night Beds - "Country Sleep"

Artist: Night Beds

Album: Country Sleep

Label: Dead Oceans

Release Date: February 1^st, 2013

Review by: Sean Kayden

      Winston Yellen is a 23 y/o singer-songwriter who performs with a band called Night Beds. The Nashville-based indie folk band is heavily influenced from artists such as Jeff Buckley and Ryan Adams to My Morning Jacket and mid-90s’ alt-country bands like The Wallflowers and Counting Crows. Originally from Colorado, Yellen rented a house outside Nashville, formerly owned by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. There he spent ten months creating his debut LP, “Country Sleep.” The record is beyond Yellen’s sensitive years. It’s incredibly warm and passionate. “Country Sleep” beautifully creates a portrait of nostalgia that can easily tear your heart apart as well as it may be able to mend it. Whatever the case may be the listener, you’ll be swirling with emotions that are too powerful to dismiss. However, with its relatively short duration, Night Beds doesn’t grasp for you too long. With a few uninspiring tunes in the mix like the closer, “TENN” and the painfully dreary, isolated vocal opener, “Faithful Heights,” the record still has this uncanny knack for captivating you when you least expect it. 

     “Ramona” is the most “upbeat” song of the bunch.  It’s an ingratiating alt-country tune sans the twang-y vocals usually found in such songs of the genre. “22” reminds me of a Ryan Adams song from beginning to end. Actually at first listen, I thought it was Adams singing as a guest vocalist. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful and echoes with strong passion and propulsion to keep moving forward. While the record has many influences, that doesn’t mean it’s derivative or middling. If anything, for those who appreciate alt-country jams and delicate folk-rock, you should feel right at home. Yellen’s voice is quite exquisite and carries this languorous trait that puts you into a deeply reflective mood. “Wanted You In August” showcases Yellen’s falsetto. His range is not only impressive but shows hints of a vivid future for the young and talented vocalist. 

     “Lost Springs” is another sensitive song that exhibits the heartbreak in Yellen. This soulful tune repeatedly and authoritatively claims, “I don’t want feel this,” but the listener is destined to feel the pain, either the one of Yellen’s or their very own calamity. In the end, this is by far no perfect album, but it’s earnestly honest, satisfying, and tender. “Country Sleep” goes through several tonal shifts and with many influences brought into one full album, the results is a record that’s both versatile and recognizable. Nevertheless, you’ll have to be in the right mood for an album of this disposition. When you’re ready, it will take you away. The place of destination is solely up to you. Wherever that is, you’ll find what you’re looking for or maybe leave behind what you have no need for any longer.

Grade: 7.6 out of 10

Key Tracks: “Ramona”, “22”, “Cherry Blossoms”, “Lost Springs”

Published by Mountain Views News on February 16th, 2013

http://mtnviewsnews.com/v07/htm/n07/p11.htm