Deep Sleep, “Turn Me Off” LP

cover-deep-sleepDeep Sleep
Turn Me Off
(Grave Mistake)

Is it offensive to say that Deep Sleep really remind me of Good Clean Fun? Like, Shopping For A Crew-era Good Clean Fun? It’s meant as a huge fucking compliment, but comparing a “real” band to a “joke” band might come off as an insult in terms of influence. It’s just that “Nothing Inside” is like someone smashed “Who Share Wins” together with the intro to “Rise Above,” and it might be one of the best things ever.

Well, not ever – damned close, though. Deep Sleep manages to sneak in enough melody here and there that it sounds as if the band were the manic fever dream of a late-night college radio DJ. “Turn Me Off” has that crystalline guitar sound that sang through the left of the dial in the late ’80s, and “Play Another” features the sort of circular guitar work that typified early ’90s proto-emo heroes, especially at the finish, where it builds and then quickly stops.

Each of the songs on Turn Me Off has something to grab your ear, and pull you away from anything you might be doing while listening. Deep Sleep has an uncanny knack for creating just the thing to make you have to lift up the needle and go back to the start of a song after saying, “Wait. Was that what I think I heard?” Which is what you will do, over and over again, until you simply take half an hour out of your day and simply listen to the whole album, start to finish, sans interruption.

The cover art on this phenomenal, featuring images pulled from a Paul Newman film with which I’m unfamiliar. It’s eye-catching as all hell, and the heavy-duty white vinyl is swank, as well.

MP3: Deep Sleep, “Nothing Inside”