“Courtesy of Insomnia” is a bedroom-pop EP released early this month by Sacramento artist Howe. This album is a melancholy collection of songs about what happens when thoughts keep you up at night, hence the title. The final lyric on the album during the title track is “wish I was sleeping instead”, really enforcing the idea of insomnia causing unwanted thoughts, even though that’s what inspired the album.
Cheyenne Ledbetter is the name behind the artist, and she is also the singer, songwriter and producer of all the songs on this EP. She states that almost every song was written and produced in her bedroom/music room, adding to the essence of an album about sleepless nights.
Ledbetter says about the release, “this EP is a dance between literal light and literal darkness and also how light and darkness, good and bad, life and death, are represented in our own thoughts.” All of those aspects, although contrasting, are sung about on “Courtesy of Insomnia”. Oftentimes, the deepest thoughts come to us at night while restless in bed trying to sleep, which the artist Howe makes apparent with this album of beautiful, yet intense, poignant lyricism. All of the heavy topics written about in each song slowly drips into the final song “Courtesy of Insomnia” which wraps up and intertwines those thoughts and ideas that lead to insomnia. That final track may also be the EP’s strongest song.
As interesting the concept and lyrics are, the complexity of production really wraps up this EP in a big bow. Each song is built and manipulated into many interesting layers; no song is boring with how much there is going on. There’s some really pleasantly surprising elements that the production gives us.
Howe’s “Courtesy of Insomnia” is a great dark bedroom-pop, debut EP.
Written by Autumn Martin
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