The Sleepy Jackson - 'Personality: One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird' (Virgin) Released 24/07/06

One of the most enigmatic and musically talented characters of the past 5 years, Luke Steele was partly responsible for making indie music from Australia look cool again. Putting bands like Little Birdy and End Of Fashion on the map whether they liked it or not, and helping raise the profile for acts from down under Steele was a staple in the middle of the page of Oz music – bloody annoying yet slightly bemusing. His band’s debut LP ‘Lovers’ was a splendid addition to a collection for any fan of perfectly crafted yet slightly psychotic music. The back catalogue of The Sleepies was a documentation of the manic emotions of Steele’s mind and they were all fantastic in their own way, so for the sake of those fans whom have come to love The Sleepy Jackson for the mysteriously kooky band that they were…walk away now.

‘Personality…’ is not one of Luke Steele’s finest moments. Hyped up as the new Brian Wilson for this record, it is plain to see that Steele has done a Ryan Adams and decided to believe all the talk about himself and gone down that terribly alluring road that artists seem to go down all too often. The road of self indulgence. Yet unlike Adams, he just hasn’t been able to pull this off. Not one hook in sight, not one discernable chorus that allures the listener and no token quirky offshoots, ‘Personality…’ is a tedious piece of work that has all the hallmarks of a bored kid in a candy store. The Sleepy Jackson have tried to cram every instrument they can think of into each song as tunes like ‘Dream On’ and ‘You Won’t Bring People Down In My Town’ contain so many musical workings, backing vocals, instrumentations and pointless chord changes that go nowhere, that it is disconcerting at just how out of touch this band have become.

Of course ‘God Lead Your Soul’ is quite the decent offering but even this cannot detract too far from the all too apparent wearisome formula of bombastic sonic masturbation that they have decided to embrace so readily. As with ‘Lovers’ Steele has his influences on his sleeve, where ‘Good Dancers’ almost sampled George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’ album and ‘Vampire Racecourse’ could have caused a law suit due to it’s unnerving similarities to the Velvet Underground, ‘I Understand What You Want But I Just Don’t Agree’ absolutely takes the piss as it rips off Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ so cheekily it is almost ridiculous that he is getting away with it. Sure all music will have similarities to other music, but at least make it sound good and elaborate on it when you go and pay homage to a band!

Only possible highlights come (however few and far between) in the form of ‘God Knows’ with it’s Good Dancer-esque guitar lines that reminisce of The Sleepy Jackson when they had just released ‘Caffeine In The Morning Sun’ which kind of moves away from over elaborated string and vocal sections, and album closer ‘How Was I Supposed To Know’ that is familiar country tinged acoustic territory that should have been on ‘Lovers’ or better yet, on an EP instead of this disappointing piece of work.

Whether Steele was trying to emulate Phil Spector or even the composer Morricone he has failed miserably, ‘Personality…’ comes out of nowhere as The Sleepy Jackson’s worst offering to date. An inaccessible album that will surely see the band lose fans.