“I'll Never Sleep Again is one of the best things I've heard this year.”
“This feels like it should’ve been the third BAND album, after the S/T release and picks up where “Unfaithful Servant” left off. This is an album so gorgeous I find myself playing it over and over again because it lulls you into magic.”
“Mike Sempert moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago with a batch of home recordings (2005’s Nature vs. Nature) crackling with Neil Young swooning and warm electronics. Since then, he’s built his bedroom project into a rock quintet, releasing a studio album (2007’s I’ll Never Sleep Again), and paying dues with a relentless touring schedule.”
“B&B are able to acknowledge their influences without being limited by them. If the plaintive pedal steel and rustic lyrics seem familiar, the synthesizers and drum machines that propel the songs forward certainly don’t. It is just this collision that makes B&B so exciting and different—and what keeps me hoping that they continue to surprise us.”
“For a band that cites both Fleetwood Mac and Daft Punk as influences, Birds & Batteries arrived with surprising coherence on 2006’s Nature vs. Nature, and followed up nicely last year with I’ll Never Sleep Again.”
—The Onion AV LA
“Such smartly sequenced albums translate into hypnotically cohesive live sets. Birds & Batteries complement their electro-western tunes with pulsing dance numbers… and breezy pop gems.”
“These songs sound fresher and more inventive; sweeping arrangements and the occasional sonic freak-out add to the already rich landscape, including an ambitious revisioning of Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold.’”
—East Bay Express, The Best Music of 2007
“The marriage of down-home themes, countrified twang, and futuristic effects. Think trombones and laptops, violins and outer space, natural disasters and simple necessities, birds and batteries… this collection is a mix of many styles and flavors and is actually a sonic tale of living in this great age.”
“A little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll, a little bit electronic and all kinds of intriguing pop.”
—The Onion AV Bay Area
“… Charmingly human yet dreamy…”
—Willamette Week
“Blending together hypnotic vocals and melancholy melodies, Birds & Batteries have combined the best of both worlds and successfully earned a place at the top in the Local Band ranks. With influences ranging from Daft Punk to Neil Young, the band is a nuclear bomb waiting to explode all over indie countdowns and the pages of Spin.”
“Birds & Batteries is an oddly appropriate moniker for a band whose synthy soundscapes seem to float effortlessly in the air.”
“We don't say this lightly, because there are really a lot of great artists coming out of the Bay Area, but we do have a current favorite: Birds & Batteries. We’ve been telling you about this co-ed quartet for a while now and our expectations for their new record were really high. Thankfully, its good news: we love I’ll Never Sleep Again. It’s still the B&B we met on their last release, but this time the woeful steel guitar and Mike Sempert’s deep drawl are buffered by better productions. including warm bursts of synths so thick you could hold them in your hand. The record starts out by making the simple, straightforward Neil Young classic, “Heart of Gold” into an existential epic, and we love the song “Star Clusters” so much thats it's secured a solid entry in our top 10 tracks of the year.”
“There is so much detail and subtlety to hear in this album, it’s near impossible to get sick of it… They manage not only to make each song mesh within itself, but the entire album is an unbelievable journey that has absolutely no potholes.”
“I’ll Never Sleep Again makes good on the promise of Michael Sempert’s first self released disc from 2005, Nature vs. Nature, fleshing out his bleary electrocountry songs with a warm studio sheen. The palette is a satisfying mix of synthesizers and pedal steel, with washes of sound bouying Sempert’s undertow croon. It’s hard not to hear a lot Neil Young in the Harvest-era balladry… with standout tracks like the Fleetwood Mac-ish “Turnstyles” taking up well-worn grooves remeniscent of ’70s rock’s mellowest highs.”
“I’ll Never Sleep Again is a damn good album—every bit as good as Nature vs. Nature. Although the previous album did amazing things with garage folk-tronica, the new album has kept the same general aesthetics but also utilized insightful production to capture and hone that sound.”
“The songs on I’ll Never Sleep Again have a couple of things in common. First, the lyrics hint at existential musings and/or social commentary… Second, the compositions are deceptively simple. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a complicated symphony of sounds, brought to you courtesy of a large variety of musicians and instruments… For those willing to give it a real listen, I’ll Never Sleep Again offers clever lyrics and sophisticated musical fusion.”
“While Nature vs. Nature was strong, I’ll Never Sleep Again represents significant advancements in both production and songwriting. The new songs are ambitious, featuring dense layering of synths and effects, and Sempert’s voice is strong and commanding. Unlike many releases, the album feels like an album, with songs leading into each other and themes developing as the release progresses.”