Sleepy Sun

Maui Tears

ATP Recordings

Stret: 01.28

Sleepy Sun = The Black Angels + Pink Mountaintops

Maui Tears is the band’s finest work yet. It’s a perfection of everything good from Fever and Spine Hits. The record opens with “The Lane”—an angelic little ditty featuring guitars that soar through the clouds and rip through the ether in search of a realm of permanent shapes. Brett Constantino confronts the specter of love when he croons, “In a pool of roses we could swim. It’s only grand illusion of our earthly whim, a glimpse.” The next track, “Words,” releases the thrust tension and serenely floats at the vantage point of everywhere. The band demonstrates its range in “Galaxy Punk,” which pants like Pixies à la Trompe le Monde. These psych masters resist the lurking urge to tangent, which makes every song that much better. Following the peaks and troughs of a heart on fire without flatlining, Maui Tears is poetic, sincere and well put-together. –Jordan Deveraux