I’ve always found The Boxer Rebellion to have a dreamy quality about them, and that shines through on their latest album, The Second I’m Asleep. While I’ve always been split between their uptempo songs and their quieter moments, the album kicks off with a happier sound in “Flowers in the Water” even if the lyrics suggest something much heavier. That energy carries into “Last of a Dying Breed” before the pace shifts for the introspective “Hidden Meanings.” The track finds vocalist Nathan Nicholson hitting notes on the cusp of a falsetto, which adds a fragile and perfect accent to the song’s inward turn.
“Satellite Above” is easily my favorite song on the record. It’s built on a slickinfectious bass line that introduces a slight 70s funk groove I didn’t see coming. Between the falsetto notes and the seductive mood, it reminds me of the melancholic pull of “Semi-Automatic” from Union. The song manages to be danceable yet lonely at the same time.
As the record moves through the hazy and moody textures of “Don’t Leave Yet” and “Perception”, the signature sound of the band never breaks. They’ve always been masters of the slow-burn, and towards the latter half of the album this shows with the music feeling as if it is deciding the pace. Breathing where it needs to breathe and sitting in the feelings when it needs to feel.
By the time the final notes of “Your Side of Town” settle, The Second I’m Asleep leaves behind a feeling of waking up from a particularly vivid dream. It’s a record that proves the band hasn’t lost their ability to make the massive feel intimate or the intimate feel massive. They aren’t trying to reinvent themselves. They are just getting better at capturing that specific and shimmery sadness that made us fall in love with them in the first place.
