Every time The Sleepy Jackson release new songs I cringe. As a musician and songwriter, nothing makes me more jealous than hearing fresh brilliance from songwriter Luke Steele. With Lovers this annoyingly gifted genius has done it again. After hearing the blissful beauty of Good Dancers I felt like selling my guitar; the raw energy of Vampire Racecourse made me consider giving up my own music and joining a covers band; the half-spoken lament of Rain Falls For Wind forced me to consider other pursuits like karate or perhaps jigsaw puzzles. My prospects were even worse: there were still another 9 songs to listen to. How depressing. Among the songs remaining I noticed This Day, previously included on the acclaimed Let Your Love Be Love EP along with the morbid but lush Fill Me With Apples. Lovers is an album that seduces you with whispers before berating you with thumping drums and finally ending the relationship with bitter prose. You can't trust this album or rely on it; Lovers will constantly surprise you but the most puzzling factor is the untouchable essence that escapes language; that certain 'something' that luckily exists within the music of some acts, yet is sadly missing from others. If I was asked to describe my favourite style of music, I would say that it must express sadness, power and beauty simultaneously. The Sleepy Jackson's Lovers, regardless of its meandering path through many genres, epitomizes that sound.

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Tracklisting
1 Good Dancers
2 Vampire Racecourse
3 Rain Falls For Wind
4 This Day
5 Acid In My Heart
6 Apples
7 Tell The Girls
8 Come To This
9 Morning Bird
10 Don't You Know
11 Old Dirt Farmer
12 Morning Rain

Full listing of THE SLEEPY JACKSON releases