Artist: Sheep Numbers

Artist: Sheep Numbers

Links: https://www.facebook.com/SheepNumbers

http://sheepnumbers.bandcamp.com/

When your locket is missing a piece, consider asking the girl who you hate. If you're truthful, the only reason you dislike her is that she's so different from you. So keep in mind: Opposites eventually attract, and you just might find yourselves finishing each other's sentences and performing “Let's Get Together” (to reunite your parents). In other words, Mike Martello aka “Sheep Numbers” is the Susan and the Sharon, the yin and the yang, or more appropriately, the Elliott Smith and the They Might Be Giants. [Don't believe that a band could nail such a musical range? Fire up The Canine Psychology's closing tracks: the appropriately-titled “Power Down” and “Get Up!” It's all you need to know (in addition to being a lovely bit of sonic whiplash).]

So how does Sheep Numbers pull it off? Polished production, fascinating keyboard sounds (e.g. “Me and You” at 2:32 and “Angel Song” at 1:03), and high-concept lyrical arrangements that carry the occasional impenetrable lyric. Lyrically-speaking, details tend not to be too important when the broad-brush big picture is so compelling. So, on “Change Me Up,” if “shoot me with remote controls” doesn't make sense in a vacuum, it is readily comprehensible in light of its organizing hook (“I don't want to be the same”), and is merely a trifle when compared to clever turns-of-phrase such as “This wooden boy is turning real / I don't wanna be the same.” [Also contrast the “bandages for balloons” of “If You Won't” with the cleverness that follows: “And if we break apart / I hope that we grow back someday.”]

And on “Falling Infinity,” a lyric like “I'll hold you till your jeans turn blue” simply serves to set up a thought that reverberates: “And as we sleep / you glow a color / that humankind / has yet to discover.” The stutter-step acoustic also sets up flowing chords that feature the memorable hook: “I'll draw your face with my finger, just to see you again.” And our lovesick narrator is just darling as he attempts to elaborate on how his infatuation is manifesting itself: “I got some glitter / Stuck in my eye / It made you sparkle / As you walked by / I washed it out / And looked once more / But you still sparkle / Same as before.” His romance is our new favorite pop song.

Vocally, with “Me and You,” we get a solitary, unaffected vocal performance recalling Leonard Cohen's “Famous Blue Raincoat,” Radiohead's “Faust Arp,” and even Sufjan Stevens' “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” But advance to the following song, “I'm Gonna Get You,” and the dimension exponentially multiplies with each additional vocal track. [These layers normally accompany Sheep Numbers' down-tempo numbers that draw the Elliott Smith comparison.]

Sheep Numbers is a universe unto itself. Behold the sheer entertainment of being taken through a perfectly crafted concept. A song called “Pilgrim (On the Inside)”? It's quite literal: “beneath this skin and fat / I've got a pilgrim shoes and hat.” What else would explain why he hasn't been acting like himself? He's got a 17th-century settler hiding inside his flesh. Brilliant! That's Sheep Numbers.

*** The author of this review, Craig Griffin, plays the mridangam for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8