Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead

When I think of concept albums I usually imagine them to be long-winded lyrically and/or odd musical journeys that bore and lose it's listeners along the way.

Not so for Armor For Sleep.

The basic concept of this album is the journey a single person takes from his death, all the way through regretting what he has done, attempting to make contact with the living and his eventual passing into the afterlife.

The album opens with 'Car Underwater', a song about the narrator's suicide (by driving his car into a river, resulting in him drowning, lovely). The lyrics begin; "believe the news, I'm gone for good, call off the search, no-one will know that I am down here". This is probably the most powerful start I've heard to an album in a long time. And not powerful in a heavy sense, more the emotional side. You can't help but fall for this album's charms. 'The Truth About Heaven' is a little more pacey, continuing from his death and portraying a regretful tone to what he has done. "I'm miserable up here without you - don't believe that it's better when you leave everything behind" is perhaps the best anti-suicide line in a song ever.

'Remember To Feel Real' adds a little background and gives a motive to why the narrator decided to take his own life, while 'Awkward Last Words' sees him begging for his life back. The lead singer (who's name I don't know, for shame!) uses the first lines of the song, again, to really ram home his point, to maximum effect.

There is a shift in the mood when 'Stay On The Ground' begins and when 'A Quick Little Flight', about the ghost contacting the living, has finished the tempo has slowed right down. The realisation of being dead hits home during 'Basement Ghost', while the album closer 'The End Of A Fraud' details the final steps into the afterlife. "I'm leaving again, for the second time around."

I could go on and detail every track but thousands of words wouldn't do this album justice. All I can do is urge you to buy it - I doubt you will be disappointed.

Track listing:

1. Car Underwater
2. The Truth About Heaven
3. Remember To Feel Real
4. Awkward Last Words
5. Stay On The Ground
6. A Quick Little Flight
7. The More You Talk The Less I Hear
8. Basement Ghost
9. Walking At Night, Alone
10. I Have Been Right All Along
11. The End Of The Fraud

Rating: 4.5/5
Stand-out tracks: 'Car Underwater', 'The Truth About Heaven', 'Stay On The Ground'