On The Flippity-Flop: Sleeper’s Charming And Disarming Debut B-Side
Welcome to “On The Flippity-Flop,” where your Idolators spotlight unjustly ignored B-sides, bonus tracks, compilation contributions, and EP cuts. Send your suggestions to tips@idolator.com.
ARTIST: Sleeper SONG: “Ha Ha You’re Dead” FIRST APPEARANCE: Alice EP, 1993 WHY IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN A-SIDE: As far as debut releases go, there weren’t many in the 1990s stronger than Sleeper’s. “Alice in Vain” itself was a perfectly fine A-Side, but it was just one of three on this 7″ single that could’ve done the job. None finer than “Ha Ha You’re Dead,” however. The four-sided bassline keeps Louise Wener’s cynical schadenfreude in a tightly defined and claustrophobic box, until the 2:35 mark when Jonathan Stewart’s tipsy guitar run lifts the lid on the song and reshapes it completely if only for a few seconds. I don’t think Sleeper ever again equalled “Ha Ha,” even if they did go on to have at least another handful of memorable singles.
