Sleepy Sun

When I first heard Sleepy Sun, I automatically assumed they were from the South. Not only was I wrong, I was a whole coast off. The Santa Cruz-based band — helmed by five gentlemen and a lady barely old enough to get into the venues they play — manages to capture, refine, and master that elusive Southern drawl on their debut album, Embrace, which comes out today on ATP/R.

The album opener, “New Age,” is a dusty, psychedelic acid trip through ’60s reminiscent guitar riffs and pulsating drum beats.

“Lord,” with its beautiful piano melodies and gospel-like vocals, has a certain Southern essence about it that would make it seem right at home inside any dive bar jukebox in Louisiana or Mississippi.

But the one track that really shines on this record is “Red/Black,” a slow, drugged-out track that calls to mind images of savage, feral forest-dwellers with painted faces and an appetite for destruction.

“Duet with a Northern Sky” is a sweet slice of Americana folk and by far the prettiest track on the record, with just a guitar and a shaker as the backdrop to a lovely duet.

Embrace, on a whole, is a heavy album and, upon listening to it, makes you feel as if you’ve been walking in the desert — strung out on some substance or another — for days without water, food, or direction. And that’s what’s so fantastic about it.

There’s a thirst, a yearning, a hunger to make music and release that pent-up energy. That’s what makes Embrace so memorable. It paints a picture. It evokes a feeling. It incites action. The passion behind it is tangible. You can feel it in each riff, in every beat of the kick-drum, through each eerily hollow vocal. At the very core of this record, you have six people that love to create and know how to do it well.

When it comes to making music, you really can’t ask for any more than that.