We are the sleepyheads
Australian quartet The Sleepy Jackson arrived on these shores some three years ago now, delivered a magnificent, critically lauded debut album 'Lovers' and then promptly vanished like a mirage in the desert. So while this single has been a long time coming it's a more than adequate reward for our patience and proof that they weren't just a mere figment of this critic's fervent imagination.
'God Lead Your Soul' is a quite wonderful slice of soulful country rock that may even rank as the band's finest moment to date. Frontman Luke Steele has returned with bolder more lavish arrangements this time out that more than support the argument that this Perthshire five piece are the Antipodean answer to the Flaming Lips. SJ though are steeped in rock classicism (more so than their mystic peers) and 'God Lead Your Soul" appears to have been beamed out of the early, pre-prog seventies. There's under-stated brass, lush strings, country rock guitars and Steele's wonderfully loquacious delivery binds things together perfectly. As an appetiser for the band's second LP proper ('Personality – One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird') this is a more than adequate hors d'oeuvre.