ALBUM REVIEW: How It Feels To Be Lost (Deluxe) – Sleeping With Sirens
On the heels of their one year anniversary of How It Feels To Be Lost, SLEEPING WITH SIRENS are breathing new life into their beloved sixth studio album with a deluxe extension that brings new renditions and perspectives of emotionally moving tracks for fans to enjoy in this quarantine boredom.
The album itself dipped back into the band’s post-hardcore roots after a brief departure with their album Gossip, resurfacing some delicious unclean vocals that could send you straight back to 2010. Overall the album was a move into a heavier direction, in it’s extended-release we’re offered one original track Talking To Myself and three acoustic versions of Leave It All Behind, Agree to Disagree and Ghost.
Revising albums in hindsight can pave way for new ideas for songs, this isn’t the band’s first rodeo in acoustic extensions either as it joins their discography with Live and Unplugged and Madness (Deluxe). This style of taking on songs with an alternative approach has become a praised aspect of the band that many fans who admire will find themselves in enjoyment with this record.
How music carries forward a message is as reliant on the lyrical side as it is on its instrumental counterpart. The acoustic tracks juxtapose from their original heavy instrumental beginnings and offer a more raw and exposed side to Kellin Quinn. Leave It All Behind was particularly praised, being the first single, for the band’s delve into the heavier sounds again that the lyrical side can almost become lost on you upon first listen with how intense the sound overall is. Having this acoustic version echoes a restless feeling of escapism, and just wanting to leave forever. Agree To Disagree has a real groove to it, giving a slight country rock essence in the beginning. Originally an angst, rage-fuelled song of conflict now transformed into what feels like the badass, resounding soundtrack to the end of a movie where the movie hero walks into the sunset, climactic guitar riffs and all. Ghost brings it home with the essence of what SLEEPING WITH SIRENS holds reign over, good ol’ sad songs. Kellin Quinn‘s storytelling songwriting style of “he said x, she said x” much like “met a girl at 17, said she meant the world to me” gives a very third-person experience to all of this and reinforces that cinematic, storyline feeling to their songs.
Talking to Myself is the only additional original track for this album, some might say that comes with disappointment as deluxe albums are costly and you really want to make the bang worth the buck but oh boy does this track alone pack a punch. The track’s post-hardcore flavour really flaunts the band’s ability to keep things fruitful and fun. 10 years exactly from their With Ears To See And Eyes To Hear debut and the band are still capable of churning out that 2010 ‘screamo’ sound but reviving it, adding a decade’s worth of expertise and being unafraid to try new things to make it different. The song is undeniably catchy with a good rhythm and easily something to open up the pit for (whenever that may be).
Overall, this deluxe extension is set to be a favourite amongst their audience and is a nice additional boost to an already ballpark album that opens windows of new perspectives to the band and just shows they really can do anything at this point.
Rating: 8/10
How It Feels To Be Lost (Deluxe) is set for release on August 21st via Sumerian Records.
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