Since 1990, the Rochester, NY, trio
Nod has written eclectic albums that draw on punk, jazz, indie pop, and folk to create a menagerie of intimate and dreamy art rock. The group's fifth record,
Good Night Sleep, applies a lo-fi aesthetic to these multiple genres, from the spacy, meandering "Old Hotel" to the bluesy fingerings on instrumental tracks like "Space Whale." "Dragon" is a simple, backwards-glancing fairy tale and "Walk the Little Man" is an odd folk song.
Good Night Sleep casts
Nod in the backwoods indie rock realm of
Grandaddy, Little Grizzly, or
Mercury Rev. But while
Good Night Sleep is a satisfying record,
Nod lacks the grandeur of fellow East Coasters
Mercury Rev and the
Pavement lineage of Californians like
Grandaddy and
Fiver. ~ Charles Spano