|
Perhaps the
most reflective moments of our lives are lived in the minutes
before sleep completely drowns out our consciousness. We are
forced to face our thoughts and at the same time admit that
sleep will soon wash them all away. Armor for Sleep is
about capturing these moments. It’s rare these days to find a
band that interlaces a theme or a common thread throughout the
lyrical fabric of its songwriting. And it is precisely this
regard for literary technique that immediately sets Armor for
Sleep apart from so many of its contemporaries. Singer and
songwriter, Ben Jorgensen’s lyrics abound with images of space,
time-travel and dreams. He incorporates these metaphorical
motifs throughout many of his songs to express solitude and
disaffection in a manner that not only sheds new light on these
ideas, but also so poignantly hits the proverbial nail on the
head. Jorgensen correlates emotional alienation to physical
insignificance in the scope of the cosmos, he sees the world of
dreams as a world of escape but also of trepidation and he uses
the bitter cold of winter to parallel the bitter cold of the
human condition. Musically, Armor for Sleep’s style is
dark and delicate, but at the same time painfully distant. The
guitars can be as remote as the lyrics and then unexpectedly
explode into melodic phrases. There is a meticulously crafted
dynamic of ambient and airy spaces combined with choruses that
are heavy and driving and at times reminiscent of early Sunny
Day Real Estate. The amazing thing though, is how infectious
the songs are, and how they can be so without being the least
bit poppy or generic. The songwriting will immediately draw you
in, but it is the vocals that keep you there. Jorgensen’s voice
has a quality and a natural tone that soothes, but at the same
time overruns with anxiety as one notices the intense emotion
fueling it.
|
 |
