Album Review: Sleeping With Sirens - 'Complete Collapse'
Sleeping With Sirens’ ‘Complete Collapse’ touches on the topics of personal growth, how we view ourselves and how we can always be a little kinder to both ourselves and to other people.
Sleeping With Sirens are gearing up to release their latest album ‘Complete Collapse’ on the 14th of October. The album is packed full of songs for everyone, along with a collection of truly impressive collaborations, you’re sure to find your new favourite song on this album.
Sleeping With Sirens open their latest album with the track ‘Tyrants’ and it sets the tone for the rest of the album very well. ‘Tyrants’ presents itself as an anthem for rebellion, and also criticises the state of the current world and how often we find ourselves powerless when trying to bring about change.
The album’s title track ‘Complete Collapse’ tells the story of learning to accept yourself for who you are, including the parts of yourself that you may not particularly like. The song’s lyrics about being “my own worst enemy” and how “sometimes I don’t wanna feel nothing on the inside” are probably ones that many of the album’s listeners can strongly relate to, and it’s a feeling that we will be familiar with many times throughout our lives. ‘Complete Collapse’ captures the battle between disliking the person that you are and learning how to accept yourself.
This album also boasts some incredible collaborations, Sleeping With Sirens teamed up with Spencer Chamberlain (Underoath) on the track ‘Crosses.’ On the topic of this collaboration, Kellin explained that “I think ‘Crosses’ is a great opening single for our new album! The song to me is about not putting yourself above anyone. I think we’re all just trying our best and we can lift each other up! In a world where everyone pretends to be perfect, I think this song is letting everyone know that we all struggle and we can rise above it!” ‘Crosses’ truly feels like an acknowledgement of the difficult times of your life and feels like it promises that even if it doesn’t seem like it at that moment, things can get better.
The tenth track of the album ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ gives the listeners a track that essentially captures the feelings we experience before or after a breakup, along with the feeling of freedom after ending the relationship. The sense of catharsis this track brings compliments the rest of the album, along with the themes presented throughout it. ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ is a track that very much belongs on playlists about heartbreak and breakups.
Sleeping With Sirens bring ‘Complete Collapse’ to a close with ‘Grave.’ ‘Grave’ depicts a story of not liking yourself as a person and seeing all of your flaws exclusively as weaknesses. It tells the story of trying to ‘fix’ yourself, something which many of the album’s listeners are bound to relate to as often we feel like there’s an undesirable trait or feature of our appearance we have that needs to be ‘fixed’. The closing track of the band’s latest album explores the complexities of human emotions and the way we are often our own worst enemy and looks at the way we find ourselves looking for any possible way to change ourselves.
The band’s seventh studio album is incredible in many ways, but perhaps its raw honesty on topics such as wishing to be a better person contribute to elevating the listening experience throughout the album.
Words by Bethany Ellis
