Slumberland Records have been a mighty presence within the independent community since their formation 30 years ago.
This is a label who have worked with such indie luminaries as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Stereolab, Dum Dum Girls and even Flying Nun alum Robert Scott via. The Bats.
Risky to some but perhaps not to a larger independent like Slumberland, the label continues their SLR30 Singles Club with the release of “Naive Castle” by WIldhoney.
A track that is firmly entrenched in jangle-pop, “Naive Castle” wouldn’t be lost appearing on the seminal C86 compilation, which itself became a by-words for this kind of music (and to an extent, The Scene That Celebrates Itself).
I don’t know if it is worth making references to Cocteau Twins, Lush or a myriad of other dream-pop bands. It’s wonderfully crafted and the outro is almost a track unto itself.
The B-Side is a cover of Sixpence None The Richer‘s “Kiss Me”, that the label promise “brings a wasted weariness to this tale of teenage yearning.”
That may be true, but does it hold a candle to New Found Glory’s cover of the said track?
Spoiler alert – it does. However, you’ll have to wait until “Naive Castle” is released physically on June 28th 2019 to find out yourselves.
You can still subscribe to SLR30 to receive this and a number of other releases from the series.
