Song Premiere: Lissie, “Sleepwalking”

Lissie
“Sleepwalking” is a little less folk-rock than Lissie fans are used to, and a little more…80’s pop-rock.

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From her sophomore full-length, Back to Forever, “Sleepwalking” sounds like a Born In The USA-era radio hit, laced with Lissie’s familiar folk twang. Maybe we should’ve seen this 80’s-influenced tune coming after her 2011 cover album, Covered Up With Flowers, which features a version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 hit, “Go Your Own Way.” Whatever direction Lissie’s taking with the sound on her new album, she’s making it work.

“Sleepwalking is a song I wrote in London after I had actually sleepwalked when I was jet lagged and had taken a sleeping pill,” says Lissie.  “The next day I went to write with Martin Craft and I was telling him about the experience. As he played a chord progression I just started singing the melody with sleepwalking as the lyric. It started there, as almost a joke, but then I started to think about how when a relationship of mine had ended I would kind of hole up or go for walks at night almost like a zombie, like I was sleepwalking.  The guy in the picture would just keep busy and go out to bars with friends and party to avoid dealing with the emotions. So a totally unrelated event sparked the story I tell in the song. It’s funny how that happens.”
Listen to the track below.

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