The Sleepy Jackson
Lovers

This Lovers album by Sleepy Jackson is quite crowded! Velvet Underground, Beach Boys, Daft Punk, Tom Petty, Beck, The Mercury Rev, Joy Division, The Flaming Lips, George Harrison, The Church... but isn't that too many?
Psychedelic pop in "Good Dancers", pounding drum rock in "I'm Waiting For My Man" oops no sorry in "Vampire Racecourse," smooth dark in "Rain Falls for Wind," country-blues in "Old Dirt Farmer"...

But how many different influences can you mix into an album without ending up with a record that sounds like a collection of your favorite songs?
I don't know, probably many, the important thing is the famous personal touch, what distinguishes talent from a xerox and which I do not find in the 13 tracks of Lovers, the latest work by the Australian Luke Steele and his Sleepy Jackson.
Yes, truly his, because it seems that the 23-year-old Luke Steele is a difficult character, very demanding and not willing to listen to others, so much so that the band members have changed three times since 2001, even his brother left, no one can stand him!

A true egocentric and schizophrenic talent? Maybe, time and the next albums will tell us, but it is certain that he is "building" an image of a tormented genius hiding behind irony and insolence.
The usual cliché? Luke claims he wants to make universal music and that every song MUST be different from the other to reach the most diverse people... from the 42-year-old drunkard to the 20-year-old model.

Well, damn I'm neither one (not yet) nor the other (ha ha) I was in a hurry, I heard only 2 tracks and took it home... it's pleasant to listen to, I'm not denying it... especially "Good Dancers" which also had a funny video... meh?! Maybe it's me who doesn't get it, but I almost regret picking it up...
Ah, it was released by EMI Music Australia. July 2003.