Grieving – No Sleep (2016)

‘No Sleep’ is the debut track from English indie-punk band Grieving. It is the first of six songs that are going to be released in the coming year, and it carries with it a tune that is complex and interesting. ‘No Sleep’ is not just a song; it is about a previous experience with insomnia and deals with how this can burden a person and disorientate them according to bassist Jack Hurst. The idea really came through with the song as I found that the instrumentals were repetitive and coincided with the image behind a sleepless night.

When thinking of insomnia, I imagine lying awake being agitated and annoyed that I can’t fall asleep, which is how the song is constructed. The words are sung harshly, and the instrumentals are rough representing some dark underlying emotions. I liked the way the song didn’t follow the typical track structure of having a verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It seems as though Grieving was writing how they feel and said it without thinking about adding extra parts that they don’t want. I feel as though they didn’t think about how it was going to sell and only cared about getting their message across.

For me, this song was very hard to review as I was torn about it. I enjoyed the message behind the song and how it was carried throughout, but the song seemed to be a little too repetitive with no real change. I am interested, however, to hear more from Grieving to discover more about the style of the band and the messages they have to offer.