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Genre/Influences: Cold-Wave.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: “Anemic Dreams” is the debut EP of the Swedish project Stella Sleeps.A full length album was announced for the end of the year.

Content: The songs are driven by typical Cold-Wave guitar play with icy, female vocals on top. The EP features 4 songs and 3 of them will be featured on the upcoming album. I noticed a mix of harder passages at one side and a softer, even monotone progression at the other side.

+ + + : The song “Caught” is worthy of examination and definitely cool Cold-Wave piece carried by great guitar play and sterile vocals on top. The more dreamy “Blinds” reveals another side of the band, which features a true outburst during the chorus.

– – – : The only song that suffers from originality is the exclusive EP-song “Hurt”; it’s totally unaccomplished and sounds like a poorly inspired B-side…

Conclusion: I can’t say this EP is groundbreaking, but it reveals some potential. The album will give us a better idea about Stella Sleeps.

Best songs: “Caught”, “Blinds”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/stellasleeps

Label: www.facebook.com/icycoldrecords

About Stella Sleeps

Stella Sleeps is a Swedish cold wave and darkwave project based in Vänersborg. The project is released by the Paris-based label Icy Cold Records. Its Bandcamp page and Discogs list the debut EP under the title “Anemic Dream” (catalogue ICR074-EP); the review above uses the plural “Anemic Dreams”.

The EP was released on 18 June 2021 as a digital release with four tracks: “Blood”, “Caught”, “Hurt” and “Blinds”. The Bandcamp notes describe it as a debut EP with three songs from the album that was then scheduled for the end of 2021.

That album, “Anemic City”, followed in March 2022 on Icy Cold Records as an eleven-track CD and download. Side-Line reviewed it in July 2022: Stella Sleeps – Anemic City. A second album, “Undisclosed Location”, was released on 7 June 2024 on CD and 12″ vinyl, again on Icy Cold Records. “Anemic Dream” is the release that introduced the project.

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Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Tags: Icy Cold Records, Stella Sleeps