Lightsleeper is a very soft and intimate record that has obviously been moulded around Neil (the father) and Liam (the son’s) relationship, with all its quirks, foibles. If there is one dominant quality overshadowing the whole album, it is the voice of youth. Liam Finn’s voice burns with ennui, anger and indignantion. Neil tempers all with understanding and sympathy and humour. One imagines the two of them, across the studio floor, going eyeball to eyeball, sometimes each would have a glint in the eye and sometimes a wry smile at the corners of their mouths.
Where they meet each other is in the tempo and that is the album’s one real flaw. It gets to the point where some songs blend into others and you don’t even notice it happening. They start to lose their identity. That said, this is, overall, a minor flaw.
It happens because the melodies themselves are all beautiful and you find your ears getting carried away as you listen to them. Each one will raise either a tear of regret or a smile of recognition, just like all good music should.