Album Review: Sleeping Bag ‘Women of Your Life’

For someone with a natural ability to write straightforward rock songs, Dave Segedy is lacking in confidence. Or, more accurately, he’s lacking in certainty. If you were to waltz into Segedy’s Bloomington home this morning to inform him that he his, in fact, not the lead singer of a band called Sleeping Bag, nor is the band releasing their sophomore LP on Joyful Noise Recordings, the news would likely be met with less an indignant denial and more a calm, “I knew it.”

As a songwriter, Segedy is keenly aware that the facts from which we assimilate our notion of reality are generally up for debate, if not altogether false. The Women of Your Life serve as the lone source of truth or reality in Segedy’s world. The intense white in the corner of their eyes. The heartache of being “rolled over” by the now immortal Allison Cole. If we say farewell to the opposite sex as Segedy commands in the album’s title track, we’re essentially abandoning the only tangible objects available and life becomes a suspicious house of mirrors.

Musically, Sleeping Bag picks up where they left off on last year’s self-titled debut. The band continues to pay homage to the founding fathers of slacker rock. Evan Pearson’s assessment of the band’s sound as “Pavement on Xanax” remains as accurate a description as any. However, Sleeping Bag proves less sedated on Women of Your Life. It’s more dynamic than the debut and offers up a broader breadth of emotion.

Sleeping Bag offers up restrained power pop sensibilities on “Nightmare.” On follow-up “Saturday Night” listeners are reminded that this band began as a drum project when the guitar and bass provide less of a melody than a danceable confluence of polyrhythms. Sleeping Bag has proven they can churn out more than their signature: the beautiful bummer, although this album certainly has its fair share (see: “Still Life”).

Fortunately for listeners, Sleeping Bag is a real band. Women of Your Life is a real record. At least, I think so. I’ll know for sure when my pre-order arrives. Order your copy today from Joyful Noise. Listen to “Saturday Night” below.

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Written by Rob Peoni