The Wrong Man scoured restless sublimity into the cosmic glow of ‘Sleeping Pills’ –

Indie singer-songwriter The Wrong Man rendered resonance for the restless mind into his latest all-too-relatable single, Sleeping Pills. Principally the project of songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Jonathan Gibbon, The Wrong Man approached this recording with the kind of classic songwriter pedigree DNA that feels lodged in the bones, allowing the release to land with emotional clarity before the production begins to glow around it.

Within the ornate lightness of the production, which gives the insomniac lullaby a semi-lucid artful radiance, The Wrong Man captures the woozy state of a mind racing through exhaustion. The bliss of dream-like surrealism inches its way into the arrangement, borrowing the cosmic stardust of Brian Eno and scattering it like confetti across a contemporary indie confessional tour de force.

Sleeping Pills centres on those nights when the lights go out, and the brain decides to host a symposium of every unresolved feeling you have ever had. The spacey, synth-swathed arrangement understands that kind of nocturnal malaise, where the body begs for rest while thought keeps circling the ceiling.

It’s clear that The Wrong Man is a songwriter first. Yes, there’s lush beauty within the performance, but his way of arranging melodies firmly roots him amongst the best songwriters of his generation. He’s absolutely in the John Lennon canon.

Sleeping Pills is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast