Last night, while watching Chris Matthews get his Super Bowl MVP award gambled away by Pete Carroll, did you happen to catch that Squarespace commercial? You know, the one with Jeff Bridges sitting by some folks’ bed while saying OOOHHHHHMMMMMMM? I imagine that I was not the only person thrown off by what a strange, seemingly out of place bit that was and all to support a new album called ‘Sleeping Tapes’ that, with all sincerity, Bridges has recorded to help you and I catch a few restful zzzzs. If you missed the commercial, watch it here:
Super Bowl 49 Commercial
Full Spot
After watching those, there was no chance that I wasn’t going to take a listen and see if Jeff Bridges has gone more Sandman or Nightmare? Was there any actual sleep aid to be had, or was thing just a strange project from a totally bizarre dude? Does the album contain anything worthwhile, or is it a hastily put together marketing ploy?
I listened to the full album once in the morning, and once at night, and my initial thoughts were, “This is really bizarre. Mayhaps I am not in the “proper state of mind” for all of this.” Like a mixture of a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon, some Tom Waits spoken word, and a fever dream, this CD is truly on of the weirder things I’ve ever had on for an hour. Jeff Bridges rambles on through dark soundscapes, stumbling onto Playgrounds at a school, random people on the street he calls “Sweetheart”, and Neil.
The CD starts out with a couple of ambient noise and spoken tracks. In the opener, Introduction (Good Evening) Jeff explains what this is via a rambling explanation in which he concludes, “Everything implies everything else. Sleeping tapes; that’s what we got here.” Why did he make these tapes? To inspire us to do some “cool sleepin’, some cool dreamin’, and some cool wakin’ up.”
The next few tracks, Sleep, Dream, Wakeup, Chimes for Dreams, and HUMMMMMM are all soundscapes that are exactly what you think they are, Jeff Bridges making weird noises. It’s cool, though, his main make-up man Thomas thinks its a trip. If you phased out for any of this, you probably woke up once Bridges humms his way down to the playground with the very ominous Lynchian background music.
At the playground, he finds an adult women, sleeping apparently. He wakes her up in Goodmorning, Sweetheart but by the end of the song, she’s trying to get away from him saying, “I think I’m gonna go over here…” and Bridges kinda freaks out. “OHNONONONO, OHNONONONO, see? I’m turning it off.” I don’t know what he was doing to chase her away, but when the noise comes back Bridges is along on the playscape interviewing kids for See You at the Dreaming Tree. This interview is complete with a story about how Jeff meets his daughter every night at the dreaming tree, and ends with Jeff showing the kids, “how he flies.”
(If this is an incoherent blaubble of seemingly random descriptions that is leaving you confused, good. So is the album!)
In A Glass of Water, Jeff tells us that he enjoys having a glass of water before bed, but that it does make him have to pee. Yet, he says, peeing in the middle of the night can “be a good experience.” He relieves himself and tells the listener to “get cozy for some bedtime stories.” The next 4 tracks, The Raven, The Hen, IKEA. and My Keys are all the aforementioned bedtime stories and all achieve a different level of creepiness. My favorite was IKEA, a story about how, when he dies, he doesn’t want to be buried or cremated. Rather, he wants to be put into a satellite in orbit that will blink anytime it passes over a place that is meaningful to him. Like IKEA.
Track 12, Temescal Canyon, is really the cream of the crop. In this 11 minute sleep opus, Jeff gets you to close your eyes and leads you on a guided tour to Temescal Canyon, “in your minds.” The following are real lines from our walk with Jeff:
“That’s some nice waving, he’ll notice shortly.” (Upon seeing a fellow hiker.)
“Maybe his name is Jim or Neil. HELLO NEIL!!!”
“Next to the tree is a pretty nice office chair.”
“I did keep the chair, we’ll bring it along with us the rest of the way.”
“It’s very clear you’re having a wonderful time!”
“If you want, we could be crows. No? Oh. Ok.”
“Look. A stream. Let’s stop and admire it. Why don’t you have a seat in the office chair?”
“Wait a minute, these aren’t rocks, these are Spanish Doubloons!”
“They must have come up here with the conquistadors.”
“We didn’t come here for doubloons, we came here to fall asleep.”
“Where are you feeling it? Your calves? Your ass?”
“That chopper isn’t going to bother us… I hope, haha.”
“I didn’t tell you this, because I didn’t want you to get too excited, but I hid a couple of hang gliders behind that sign over there.”
“Oh look there’s Neil down there, getting into his car. Wave to him again! GOODBYE NEIL… goodbye neil.”
It’s a pretty epic journey, one that you really do need to close your eyes to truly experience. You’ll laugh. After taking us on a hike, Jeff then wants to make sure that we feel good and affirmed in our lives. That’s the purpose of Feelin’ Good. Jeff is going to make you feel good with compliments before you sleep. Compliments like, “Even if you think you can’t swim, you probably can” and “You have excellent insights about popular movies” and, “You have a strong grasp of the political landscape.” (Those last two are for me. Thank you Jeff! I DO have excellent insights about popular movies.)
The last two numbers wind down a little bit after these two epic journeys. Seeing with my Eyes Closed is basically Bridges describing items with his eyes closed. Goodnight (We’re All in this Together) is the epilogue, the tie-up, to the relaxing sound of a toilet draining and refilling (seriously). Did you stay awake through the whole thing? Jeff’s not happy with you saying, “You’re not asleep? What the hell? Fire this thing up again!” Apparently the whole thing funds charity (No Kid Hungry), but I was done by then. I turned back to track 1, still wide awake.
Did Jeff Bridges’ Sleeping Tapes help me to fall asleep? I don’t think so, unless maybe I dreamt some of the weirdness I think I heard. Is this album worth listening to? Absolutely, if just to experience it once and to get the references I plan to drop in the coming months. Is the album worth purchasing on one of the many offered formats (gold plated vinyl, CD, Cassette)? To listen to over and over again, maybe not, but it does seem to be helping a good charity, so that’s up to you.
I can see that this, even the comedic aspects, might not be everyone’s cup of tea. And while I enjoyed the utter bizarreness of the record, well if you hated every second of it, that’s just, like, your opinion man.
Listen to the Full Album at Dreaming with Jeff.
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