Vancouver Sleep Clinic :: "Collapse"

The derivatives market on Justin Vernon yielded Vancouver Sleep Clinic, a precocious 17-year old from Brisbane, and a debut single, "Vapour" over this past summer. New single, "Collapse" chases the cord of the Bon Iver lamp back the wall, offering chilly harmonies and a soundscape that well belongs at the bottom of a bottle of cold medicine or in the background of a 19th century European Romantic landscape painting. Austere in places, lush in others, "Collapse" stutters along with blinking keys and singer Tim Bettinson's brittle falsetto. It's a damn wasteland as Bettinson sings, "We've been outgrown", a passing dalliance that pays its respects to the beauty of the the ephemeral and the fleeting.

Vancouver Sleep Clinic :: "Vapour"

Vancouver Sleep Clinic sounds a great deal like Wisconsin superstar Bon Iver, a fact that will either call you to the wunderkind from Brisbane or will succeed in driving you from first single, "Vapour". Ethereal vocals and whispering keyboards mix with a bright acoustic guitar, eventually creating a charming final movement that feels both full and barely there in the same moment. Mastermind Tim Bettinson aches on one of the few unmistakable lyrics, "Where the heart is/is never a home," the kind of whip-smart derivation which, in this case, doesn't feel a bit forced.