This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Ben Lee seems to have every reason to be severely bummed — his six-year relationship with Claire Danes is reportedly kaput, his previous record company went belly-up, and his last album didn’t even get a North American release.
Despite all that, the 26-year-old Australian singer-songwriter’s fifth full-length Awake Is The New Sleep is anything but a morose breakup album (though there are plenty of songs that seem to be about getting his heart squished). Eschewing the groove-based fare of 2002’s Dan the Automator collaboration Hey You. Yes You., Lee reunites with producer Brad Wood and returns to the tastefully laid-back indie-pop songcraft of their 1997 collaboration Something To Remember Me By. The bouncy beats, the strummy guitars, the lyrics about spiritual and emotional rebirth (Lee is a practising Buddhist) all make this one of his most heartfelt, hopeful and just plain happy albums. Even when he’s singing lyrics like “you broke my f—ing heart,” he inevitably decides he “can write (his) way out of this pain.” I guess joy is just the new sorrow for Lee.
