From Iceland — S ND Y P RL RS: Bring Death To S ND Y P RL RS

Published April 12, 2012

There’s a time for baring your soul. And there’s a time for realising that, without a bit of window dressing, listeners probably won’t care. Cribbing heavily from the Bright Eyes playbook, S ND Y P RL RS’ sincerity will never be called into question—it rolls of every note strummed and every over-enunciated sentiment uttered. The problem is, songs don’t sound sparse as much as they do unfinished, featuring gaps begging to be filled with horns, piano, percussion—anything other than the sound of one man’s slowly sinking desperation.
‘The Fight Song’ perfectly illustrates S ND Y P RL RS’ failings—namely, confusing emotional with slow, and stripped down with boring. A song that drags from note one, by the time he spits out the lyric “I’d like to start a fight, to show you what I got,” it’s difficult to decide if one should laugh at the overwrought folk caricature, or offer to get out and help push.
If any credit can be given, it’s that one never has to wonder what S ND Y P RL RS is thinking. As unadorned as his musical choices, lyrics all focus around the following (in no particular order): drinking, fighting, girls, and the loneliness that can steam from getting involved with all of the above. Redeeming values? If we’re to believe ‘Bring Death To S ND Y  P RL  RS,’ all is vanity and chasing after the wind. Honest? Yes. But poetry this ain’t. S ND Y P RL RS may have barred his soul, but ultimately he’s not showing us a thing we don’t already know. Cheer up buddy.
http://sndyprlrs.bandcamp.com/