The Leisure Society are a child
of many parents. The sounds of modern American folk are perhaps the maternal
line, passing on a love for rich atmospherics and layered harmonies inherited
from uncles Grizzly Bear and Iron & Wine. On the father’s side is the more
tempered British folk, whose bloodline reaches back to the more austere sounds
of Nick Drake, and has a cousin in Adrian Crowley.

As such, their Leisure-ly paced
debut, "The Sleeper", shows signs of such
a lineage in its love for wooden timbres and humming harmonies without ever
finding a home. More urban than Fleet Foxes, more Americana than James
Yorkston, the Leisure Society aren’t so much breaking boundaries as trying to
fit within them all at once.

Such a broad range of influences
might have been a spur to create a diverse record, but the Leisure Society have
developed a consistent tone throughout "The Sleeper", to their detriment. The arrangements are uniformly
warm and the tempos consistently drowsy, but the pleasing tones soon become
indistinct. Apart from the sudden semi-bluegrass banjo breakdown in "Save
It For Someone Who Cares", one song drifts
across and into the next, barely differentiated.

There’s a spark missing in the
songwriting that holds "The Sleeper"
back.
The quiet melancholy that sits behind the major-key arrangements is too
reserved to draw any bite from the contrast, shooting for
"While You
Wait For The Others", but falling short. In
truth, "The Sleeper"
seems
emotionally muted, straddling intimacy and grand-scale gestures in a way that
misses both.

Curiously, the single version of "Save
It For Someone Who Cares", which appears on
the bonus EP "A Product of the Ego Drain", hints at a more diverse tone, with a woodwind introduction that
sounds like a preface to a Sondheim chorus. Partnered with a novel cover of
Gary Numan’s "Cars"
, the EP at
least hints at some variation in the Leisure Society’s repertoire. Perhaps by
album number two, the band will have developed a stronger identity, and be
prepared to make a more compelling statement.