Welcome to a new Heavy Blog feature! It was spawned out of one of the greatest forces on the planet: fandom. Often used for evil, the basic excitement that draws us to love something is an inherently powerful force. Here at the blog, and music journalists in general, often have to curb it in order to more accurately (we don’t believe in objectivity, in case you hadn’t noticed) and that can get hard. Love Letter is our way to vent! On this column you’ll find no nuanced analysis, no broader context or blind Lady Justice. You’ll only find someone gushing about a band, a track, an album, gear, a show, artwork or whatever else.
And the best thing? It doesn’t have to be staff members! We invite you, our readers, to submit your own Love Letters. Rules are this: send 300 words TOPS (no, really) to mail[at]heavyblogisheavy[dot]com with the subject line “Love Letter” or post your letters in the comments below! We’ll go back and forth between your letters and our staff’s!
To kick off this brand new feature, I chose the band who drove me to needing it: sleepmakeswaves. I (and the blog in general) have written plenty about them; they’re one of the best post rock bands working today. However, I just want to tell you how much I love them. Beyond the innovation they bring to the table, beyond their importance in the Australian scene, beyond analysis of their ideas or work within their genre, sleepmakeswaves make me smile. The biggest, stupidest, most god damn excited smile you’ve ever seen in your entire life.
Something about the way their groove works, about how everything comes together, just makes me want to dance in my seat, open my arms wide and shout, jump up and down in the street and just smile. Somehow, they manage to bring this mood into even the most somber of their works, like those that preceded their first album. Even the heaviest of riffs or quietest build up carry this sense of life, of burgeoning energy, of the forces which resonate between our hearts and music to make both those things work.
sleepmakeswaves just get me and why I listen to music, why I hunt for that specific thrill. Like no other band, they lift me up with every listen and give me the excitement I need to get through whatever I need. And for that, I love them so much and always will, no matter in what direction they’ll go.