"Sleepyhead" by Cavetown
Originally created as a bedroom pop project back in 2014, Robin Skinner, the artist behind Cavetown, demonstrates an evolution and distancing from his childish origins in his latest release, “Sleepyhead.” While his music has since evolved into an influential hybridization between Indie Rock and Bedroom Pop, I have found his past work to fall short of this claim, obscuring value within repetitive tracks and teenage emotions. So in turn, I approached his latest album with caution.
Seemingly written as a cadence to his own coming of age story, Skinner packs a dizzying amount of nostalgia into “Sleepyhead.” The album opens up with the spirited track “Sweet Tooth” in which his undistorted voice complemented by an acoustic guitar and synth create the same recognizably innocent yet charming tone found throughout his past discography. In contrast to his tone of voice though, the verses speak on a stark desire for distance from the current image of himself. A dictation that shows a boldly placed emphasis on the exhaustion of suppressing his queerness and an intentional choice in setting up the rest of the album.
Brimming with curiosity, the third track, “Telescope,” enacts a quick switch from the bubbling up of these emotions to the cautious cradling of them. Reflecting the aims of the album, this piece uses a deep synth to experiment with a new sort of noise. Out of all the songs on this album, this track drew me in the most. The message is centralized around the glazed-over thought: “what’s it like outside.” An ode to hesitancy, to the warming feeling of exploring the outer bounds of the known, and to taking a chance.
In feeling more comfortable with his personal image Skinner’s music takes on a greater risk and embraces due change. Coupling the astronomical atmosphere of “Telescope” with a distinct, folk-like sound, the fifth track, “Pyjama Pants,” expresses genuine emotion and ditches the whiny sound of his early teenage years. Skinner’s relaxed tone as he sings “You sit close to me / I can finally breathe” pronounces excitement at the idea of sureness and openly welcomes his suppressed sexuality.
Taking on a folk-like spin to a mostly synthetic album, “Things That Make It Warm” tests risk in a separate way and reaches back to refine 2018’s five part “Animal Kingdom” series. Using lyrics such as “My feathers seem to have taken the brunt of the storm” Skinner resurfaces his established pattern of personifying animals to speak on personal hardships. Working alongside this, the soft acoustic melody suggests a humbled sense of self. I detected a deflation of Skinner’s passive ego in the realization that the volume of his community does not determine the value of his own self worth, a sort of growth artfully reflected in the final track of the album.
*Click* goes the sound of a cassette tape as Skinner commemorates his coming of age story on “Empty Bed.” A thoughtful conclusion to his earnest self portrayal, this final track of the album inevitably became my favorite. By overlaying his voice with a more childish tone Skinner notes the contrast between his current and younger version of himself while remarking on his origins. In closing, the subtle harmonization of the two voices in the lyrics “take care of you for me” gave me chills in a good way.
Sleepyhead surprised me in the best of ways. When initially looking at the cover of this album, I pictured Skinner as the cat under the comforter, tucked in and hiding from the world. I found Skinner’s efforts to acknowledge his past self quite thoughtful and, having shed these covers, I look forward to hearing the results of this change in his future releases.
– Chris Goodall