Charlie Smith Provides Us With Something Fresh, Experimental And Authentic.
Charlie Smith begins I just want to sleep with the title track itself, which covers one of the main themes of the EP: Fatal Sleep Insomnia. He displays this through mellow acoustics, which foreshadow the melancholic feel we are going to hear on his EP, and lyrics like ‘This feels like a dream’.
We are then introduced to the track entitled She only needs that arguably has the best vocals on the EP. Whilst it’s clear that this unique, addictive production truly compliments Charlie Smith’s vocals throughout the whole of I just want to sleep, She only needs is where this is emphasised most, containing calming vocals that mirror the acoustic melody perfectly.
Fast forward to the most popular song on the album Floxed and we see possibly the best production on the EP. In a blog post on Vocal Media, Smith explained his distinct sound he carried throughout I just want to sleep that he recorded with tape, saying “It was pretty rudimentary and in a lot of ways very similar to the method used in the ’50s and early ’60s.” It’s not often you hear such a stripped back song, or EP in this case, these days, the closest in sound probably being the early work of Radiohead, and even that was over twenty years ago. In Floxed we are reunited with fresh vocals and instruments after decades of autotune and sometimes overcomplicated production, making the song all the more melancholic and real.
Towards the end of the EP we are acquainted with two weather related songs, separated by a more rock-based track titled There’s a place. Here comes the rain man and I don’t mind the sunshine have contrasting atmospheres, creating a form of pathetic fallacy. Here comes the rain man has a slow tempo and a wistful atmosphere, reflecting it’s title. I don’t mind the sunshine has a faster tempo and a much more hopeful atmosphere, also reflecting its title. Both songs massively contribute to the different emotions and themes unveiled on the EP, such as sadness and self reflection.
Smith has also released a guitar centred single this year entitled Have it all which explores similar sounds to I just want to sleep but with twists in terms of tempo and meanings/themes.
You can listen to Have it all and I just want to sleep here: