Awake Is the New Sleep

Awake Is the New Sleep represents a radical pivot toward light. After years of being the precocious, often cynical wunderkind of the Australian indie scene, Ben Lee emerged here with an album that is startlingly earnest and unashamedly positive. It sounds like the musical equivalent of a deep, cleansing breath. The production is crisp and warm, favoring bright acoustic guitars, playful glockenspiels, and steady, mid-tempo rhythms that feel like a heartbeat. It is an album that invites the listener into a headspace of gratitude and curiosity, shedding the protective layers of irony that defined much of the early 2000s indie landscape.

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