Kellin Quinn and Sleeping With Sirens are veterans in the music industry. The Floridians somehow take minimal time between albums, religiously appear on Warped Tour every summer and still deliver routinely when called upon.
The five-piece alternative rock band just released their fourth studio album, Madness, which was fantastic in its own right. Live and Unplugged takes a different approach, understandably. The title says it all. While a release of this nature prior to summer may elude to just filler content, after a few listens, it proves to be more than just that. Live and Unplugged further highlights Quinn’s incredible vocal range and pitch as the band go acoustic and unplugged on songs spanning all four prior albums.
Tracks like “Go Go Go,” “Gold” and “If You Can’t Hang” rival their studio recorded versions for enjoyability and at the very least provide the listener with a softer version of each tracks that hits the spot as the day winds down.
While the live and unplugged renditions of their own songs hit the spot in one sense, Sleeping With Sirens could’ve done without the covers (“Iris” and “Santeria”) and trimmed the track listing down to about eight and delivered a more tight, polished unplugged album.
All in all, perhaps the intent of the album is simply to further excite their dedicated fan base for the summer as Sleeping With Sirens touches down on Warped Tour once again. Regardless, Live and Unplugged does an excellent job of reaching outside a sound Sleeping With Sirens has mastered in years past experimenting with sounds even more mellow than Madness.
