Band: A Bad Think
Album: Sleep – 6/24/14
by Alice Roques
It’s a great feeling to be able to finally put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) to put my thoughts into words regarding A Bad Think’s Sleep. After listening to this album pretty much nonstop during commutes, this album has become a comfortable fixture in my rotation.
A forewarning to my fellow revolters. This isn’t your typical fare. This is not skull worthy. I have to use a new scale for this one. This scale weighs the epicness of the album in terms of its genre and style. I would expect to hear A Bad Think’s Sleep at a coffee shop, so I’m applying a new scale: my new latte scale. This is where 1 (or even half) a latte is a pretty disgusting cup of joe (imagine worse than the cheap crap purchased in bulk for business offices. It’s like someone spilt it, mopped it up, and then wrung the mop into a cup), and 5 cups is pure caffeine infused heavenly bliss.
Now that we got our parameters straight, let’s talk music. Michael Marquart is the man behind A Bad Think. If I could apply my latte scale to this guy, he gets 10 cups because he is that stellar. He purchased Flyte Tyme studios back in 2012, and turned it into Windmark Recording (who’s client roster would make your jaw drop into your pants). So, yeah, this guy is one bad-ass music industry mogul. Beyond the studio though lives Michael, sole member of A Bad Think, releasing his 5th album last month called Sleep.
One word to describe Sleep: soporific. Let me just say, albeit I may describe Sleep as soporific, I mean that is the most deferential manner. I LOVE sleep (If there were an Olympic Sport of sleep, I would be a nine-time gold-medalist). This album relaxes your body and ignites your mind, and the music becomes the aural backdrop to your reveries. It invokes an inner calm that only sleep can, and therefore this album’s soporific effect is the map towards a transcendental journey from mere wakefulness to full on REM, and that is a journey I WANT to renew my passport for!
The first song is a gorgeous multi-textured piece that is accentuated by the movement between distinct styles. Melodic guitars strum over electric harmonizing cradles of guitars while Michael’s vocals are mildly distorted and muted. They blossom into realization with the pleading refrain of “Don’t Leave Me Out”.
Michael’s vocals on “Photographs” are joined with his daughter’s hauntingly beautiful voice, as they dance across the rich yet simple melodies. The song is enhanced by rich orchestral strings and lilting pianos, with flute-bathed transitions throughout.
“We All Fall” leads in with strumming guitars that deliver us into a progressively syncopated beat. Guitars take a more prominent stance in this song, allowing Michael’s lead and choruses to be at ease during and throughout. Key changes tantalize straight intol the final dénouement, that lead not only into ending this piece, but also providing contrast to “Happy Little Pills”, which lilts, ebbs and flows with hypnotic candor.
Nothing pleasures me more than to find songs written in 6/8, and “Antique Doll” satisfies my taste for non-standard time signatures. With airy chime synths painting a sad and decrepit circus calliope, the song decorates the mind with scenery of forgotten youth.
Ushered in with simple drum and cymbal tapping, we are brought to Michael’s lyrics that progress “On and On” as we move through the song into an amazing guitar/synth solo that is speckled with flecks of blues sliding undertones, but laden in classic rock sensibility. The guitar delivers us through a broadening horizon, with building flourish and intensity.
Watch A Bad Think’s “On and On”
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“One Fine Day”, like “Don’t Leave Me Out”, alternates tempos, style, and texture between verses and choruses, intermingling sound effects and vocal distortions, giving listeners a delicious musical morsel to ponder on. “Loyalty” jumps right in with a guitar ebbing out into a beat driven vocal verse that blows into the “Loyalty” refrain. It invokes the All for One, and One for All mantra, but alludes that the sentiment is a fading concept.
“One Against Another” continues in similar fashion, with similar tonal quality and movements, but featuring more tintinnabulation decorating silent spaces, contrasting with the wistful vocals.
More balladic than the earlier pieces in this album, “Where do I go from Here” is like a small window through which we watch Michael’s emotive creativity. It moves from a guitar to a bass guided refrain, giving us insight about Michael’s pondering of what is up next.
“Sleep” is a lullaby that moves your soul to dream laden delight whilst nestling Michael’s vocals over silky piano chord beats, caressed by a variety of stringed instrumentation. Midway, a solo violin invokes the strings into a gorgeous movement of orchestral bliss which transports us to the land of Nod. It’s inviting, gorgeous, and worthy of lending its name for the album title.
“The Salesman” is crafted beautifully, incorporating multiple textures with various percussive effects that give it a physical presence. “Some might say that I over think my music, but this is just how I work. The first song I wrote out of this batch was ‘The Salesman’, which is one of my favorites on this record” stated Michael about this song, which is obvious upon first listen. Yes. Michael fills every nook and cranny within a song with layers upon layers of musical notions.
I dig this album. It’s not the heavy dark stuff that we typically review. Sleep is a stylish, well-crafted, four out of five latte gem, that will excite alternative music lovers and coffee drinkers on a global scale. Pour yourself a cup or four, and take a listen for yourself. A Bad Think is a Great Thing, and Sleep is not just something you do with your eyes closed.
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by Alice Roques, RockRevolt Magazine Cofounder and Managing Editor
