We first featured Newfoundland’s Family Video back in 2014 when they released Maybe This Summer. Now the band, led by Jen King, are back with a new record called Places To Sleep, an album which sees a continuation of the band’s core aesthetic of kinda sad and wistful indie rock. Musically it’s a little more subdued than previous releases, a move which fits the themes perfectly and results in what could well be the band’s best album to date. It also does no harm that they’ve recruited some great help, with Fog Lake‘s Aaron Powell joining to add synths and some vocals on several tracks.
Places to Sleep opens with ‘You in the Night’, whch begins as slow motion lo-fi rock but picks up momentum as it goes, becoming increasingly dynamic with ringing guitar and slapped drums, King’s vocals slow and troubled:
“i like you lying
your knees and shoulders bare
like a wild animal
in the shade resting”
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‘The Attic’ is on the quiet and unassuming end of the indie rock spectrum, with background oohs and lyrics about pining for someone, full of “whats?” and “woulds?”. ‘Find You’ is a similarly heartsick lo-fi rock song, all mumbled happy memories and unfulfilled wishes, closing with the lines “i’d like to come home and find you in my bed / rather than watching movies alone instead”. Tales of cold and lonely nights litter ‘Empty Bed’, the repetition of the line, “nights just go so slow when you’re in an empty bed / and the snow trucks keep you up / like how your shadows used to”, suggests such feelings are not uncommon, that each night plays out like a bad memory of the one just gone. ‘Winter Shadow’ comes at the halfway mark and feels like the album’s focal point, with its crunchy guitar and King’s dreamily sad and lonely lyrics about life in a small and icy Northern town, about missing someone far away. But despite the longing and the gloom, the chorus is almost catchy and hints at hope, at hidden reserves of strength and patience in the narrator.
“i just close my eyes and think about all the nights i’d like to be with you
while i’m just painfully here lying on the floor”
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King’s vocals get a chance to soar on ‘Aaron in the Basement’, perhaps the most cathartic track on the record, all lo-fi grumble and dreamy vocal effects as King sings, “says he’s staying at someone’s house i wouldn’t know / says he’s named greg and i don’t have his telephone / nobody sees him he hides all alone on his own”. ‘Together in the Darkness’ is much more sedate, like an electrified take on the typically acoustic bedroom pop formula, building in intensity until it billows like dry ice across an almost empty basement. ‘My Sisters House’ feels brighter with crashing drums and noodly guitars, as does ‘The Rocking Chair’ which almost has a stomp-along air behind King’s introverted vocals. “tell me that we’re not doomed” she sings, “i just wanna hear your voice in my ear”.
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‘Videos of You’ has chugging guitars and cymbal-heavy percussion, before closer ‘Winter Shadow (Revisited)’, a stripped down take on the earlier song and the album’s only acoustic track. It feels like a distillation of all of the thoughts and feelings on the album, the lo-fi fuzz cleared away allowing the sentiments to stand front and centre, a clear-eyed profession of both desire and devotion. Places to Sleep is DIY rock ‘n roll for the hordes of people pining for someplace (or someone) else.
You can get Places to Sleep as a name-your-price download via the Family Video Bandcamp page.