The Fat Angel Sings

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Brooklyn’s Leapling isn’t much for rules, and the band’s debut album “Vacant Page”, (set to be co-released by Exploding In Sound Records and Inflated Records in 2015) is going to prove it. Take the album’s first single, “Crooked,” which  it may have an indie-rock framework, but its hip-hop backbone avoids nearly all the tricks traditional rock bands use. The processed drums cut in and out quickly, with cymbal hits decaying as quickly as they emerge. Staccato guitar strikes cut in between this broken groove, allowing vocalist Dan Arnes to use his soulful vocals as the song’s anchor. Leapling builds its identity around this glitchy take on Death Cab For Cutie, even if “Crooked” sees the group willingly throwing a wrench in the machine just to see what will happen.

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For a song called “N.E.R.V.E.,” this sounds preternaturally chill. Perhaps it’s because they’re not using nerve in the traditional sense of the word. Frontman Dan Arnes doesn’t sound nervous or anxious here; he sounds resigned. “You said I had a lot of nerve / N-E-R-V-E,” spelling it out like a Sesame Street rhyme, It’s murky as to whether he’s in the right in whatever fight he’s involved in, and it’s clear that he doesn’t fully know either: “There’s a reason I am writing words that are incomplete.” All of Leapling’s songs are inhibited with an uneasy sense of murmured calmness, and it’s more pronounced here than ever. The drums roll along like billowing storm clouds, and the guitar and bass take on the laidback attitude. “N.E.R.V.E.” is a foggy, somber highlight from the Brooklyn band’s upcoming debut full-length “Vacant Page”, is out 10th February via Inflated Records/Exploding In Sound Records.