With Even In ArcadiaSleep Token delivers an album as ambitious as it is introspective, ready to seduce an ever wider audience while risking dividing his fans from the start.
An intensity rise from the opening
From the first minutes of Look To WindwardSleep Token announces the color: this fourth album is not agreed. With its 7 minutes 46 of orchestral flights, abyssal riffs and almost chiptune patterns, the song imposes a solemn and dense climate. This introduction, rich in literary and spiritual references, sets the tone of a disc that oscillates between grandeur and discomfort.
Emergencefirst single unveiled, confirms this hybrid direction: vocoded voice, groove trap and solo of the captivating saxophone signed Gabi (Bilmuri), all merged into a crescendo that is both electronic and emotional. Then comes Past Selfmore stripped, but also more fragile – a foray into synthetic pop on the edge of the rupture.
A turn to the general public
With Dangerousthe group ventures even further in pop experimentation. This suave and dancing piece, worthy of a contemporary sweet R&B, even evokes a Careless Whisper Revisited for the Tiktok era. A daring bias that continues with Caramela hinge of the album, already praised in the British and American charts. On a reggaeton rhythm, Vessel delivers a raw confession: “I guess that’s what I get for trying to hide in the limelight” (“This is what happens when you try to hide under the spotlight”). Less mystical than in the past, Sleep Token is vulnerable here, almost disarmed.
Even In Arcadiathe title song, illustrates this desire to enhance the tension. Built around a cinematographic piano and dramatic strings, it is gaining momentum … without ever exploding. Like a suspended promise, an imperfect paradise.
A grandiose but confusing finish
The last part of the album marks a return to more metal ambitions. Provider Play the assumed R&B pastiche card, while Gethsemane offers strange but surprisingly effective funk sounds. Finally, Infinite Baths Close everything in an epic mixture: gospel tablecloths, ethereal keyboards, and a final of unprecedented brutality for the group. An implicit tribute to Pink Floyd is emerging, like a modern version of Shine On You Crazy Diamondwhere glory becomes a curse.
An album as sincere as divisive
Even In Arcadia is not a disc of instant tubes, nor a simple series of Take Me Back To Eden. It is a dense, imperfect, but deeply honest album. Sleep Token exhibits his flaws, doubts, and his most raw creative impulses. This work could disarray fans attached to the first trilogy, but it opens the door to an even wider recognition.
Scheduled to go out on May 9 at RCA Records, Even In Arcadia Mark a new step in the meteoric ascent of the British group – and shows that ignore Sleep Token has simply become impossible.
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