Beach Sloth

Dominique LeJeune - WAKE EP 7.1

                Dominique LeJeune is sweet stuff. WAKE EP is full of tender little moments. Her voice carries it. At its most chaotic and distorted her voice remains the center of calm of the album. Indeed it is memorable enough to count as a soul for the album. For a few songs the sound and voice melt into one single sound, hard to distinguish which came first. Dream pop is a good term for what is going on in these seven breezy tracks. Things are blurred. Rarely do they get confrontational. The songs float on by leaving a pleasant impression. 

                The album starts off gently with a bunch of small children chanting ‘jellyfish’ near the water. It may seem insane to start it out with such a silly beginning. However this sets the tone for most of the album. Dominique LeJeune remains committed to channeling a sort of child-like wonder with the world. ‘In Reveries’ the first ‘proper’ track shows this off nicely. And yes she does mention jellyfish in the track showing the children’s chants weren’t for nothing. ‘Penny Please’ is a delicate song. Here Dominique strips away the distorted guitar replacing them with crystal clear acoustic guitars. By far the winner of the bunch is the eclectic ‘Shoulder’. On this song Dominique veers from quiet to loud, slow to fast, and the buildup is glorious. Actually it remains one of the few songs on the entire album to offer a real sense of gigantic proportions. 

                Overall this is the perfect little EP to listen to as one drifts off to bed.