REVIEW: Sleeper, Smart (Arista)

- Tim Mohr

To begin lazily, an unimaginative use of the album title (no less excusable due to the preceding admission and this disclaimer): smart, indeed, are Sleeper. Smart-assed lyrically, smartly decked out in requisite indie gear, and intelligently avoiding the attention and subsequent wrath of lawyers - hot on Elastica's trail - by writing an album full of *original* pop melodies.

A guitar outfit fronted by a female singer, Sleeper occupy a narrow strip of ground separating the punchy pop of Echobelly and the more flammable punky-pop of elastica. Some of the tunes, especially the pre-album singles "Delicious" and "Inbetweener" (which, along with "Alice", are all included on Smart), buzz along on fast, buoyant guitar lines while others lilt past fastened to happy-go-lucky backdrops with little in the way of high-octane ambition.

Laying waste to typical pop romanticism, Sleeper sing about cynicism in a very honest, non-cynical way: "Inbetweener", for instance, is about a passionless relationship that is taken up between what was, and what will hopefully be, a more meaningful connection. "You're such an inbetweener." Notions of a sexual mercenary also inform "Delicious".

Showing both a well-informed pop consciousness and a sense of humor, Sleeper pun on a similarly titled S*M*A*S*H song with "Lady Love Your Countryside," which proves, rather than a novelty, a durable song in itself.

To be sure, Sleeper are not breaking new ground. A host of bands, from Belly and the Throwing Muses to the aforementioned British newcomers, make versions of the same basic racket. The field of female-voice-and-guitar- pop has quickly become crowded, plowed continuously since its post-Blondie rebirth with bands like the Darling Buds and the Primitives. And while certain harvests have been widely fete'd, there is no reason to disregard the contributions of quieter arrivals such as Sleeper. By virtue of their songs alone, Sleeper constitute a welcome addition.

Like the deluge of bands who closely resembled one another during the British Invasion (mid-60s version), jostling for position in the press, charts, and record shelves won't necessarily assure lasting power and restrospective musical respect for today's hopefuls. Closing with an equally inexcusable display (two, in fact) of rhetorical slothfulness: dismiss Sleeper as riding Elastica's coattails at your own risk.