The Dream - alt-j: Review
alt-j
are a British indie rock trio who first began to attract attention with their 2012 debut album and breakout hit song Breezeblocks. They garnered attention for a very unique sound and the defining lead vocals which helped their songs stand-out. While they declined in critical success over their next two albums the band has still maintained a devoted fanbase. The Dream is their 4th album following 2017's Relaxer.
Review By Lav:
I've always had a soft spot for alt-j. Their quirky British charm worked on me better than I'd like to admit and when it's paired with great songwriting I think they're capable of doing really great things. Even though the quality of the band's albums have gone down with each new release I've always been slightly more positive than the critical consensus. With The Dream alt-j deliver their most inconsistent bunch of tracks to date and to make it easy on me, they basically split it right down the middle.
Two of my favorite songs on the record were released as singles and they both land in the albums first half. Hard Drive Gold is the most upbeat of the bunch and it's grown on me over the last month. There are some unmistakably silly parts like the "fire" shout which sounds particularly out of place. Other than that I think the winding instrumentation is awesome and the refrains are catchy throughout. Get Better is a fantastic song. I liked it a lot as a single but the more time I spend with it the more I realize how spectacular it is. The song delivers a story about a lover who has passed away through a series of nonlinear vignettes that contrast how great the times when they were alive were, compared to the crushing loneliness in their absence. The gentle vocals and strings are the perfect accompaniment for the subject matter and when they both rise gently it makes for remarkable moments. The track as a whole is a poetic exercise in denial that I can't get enough of.
Bane is the opening track and it starts out on a pretty sparse note even by alt-j standards. The fuzzy vocal samples and massive crash of sound about two minutes in are the only sounds that really punctuate it. Once the song really gets started it's a bit more of a familiar approach with a nearly trip hop like combination of distant drum beats and keys. The song is certainly quite stark but I think the soundplay is interesting enough to hold its own between refrains. Happier When You're Gone is pretty on the nose with its title but the song itself does have a bit more going on. It highlights something I like about alt-j where they hide instrumentation for just long enough to lull you in, then deliver it at just the right moment. It even makes something relatively simple like the cowbell ass percussion on this song sound like a great surprise.
The Actor is another big highlight starting off with a thick bluesy riff that has me checking to make sure I wasn't still listening to the new Spoon album. Onec the song actually starts going it has much more of an alt-j flair with the eerie alien synths and fuzzy mixing that makes everything sort of blend together in the background. This has quickly become one of my favorite songs on the record and I love the catchy soaring refrains that contrast with the impressively spacious instrumental. The one highlight on the second half of the record is the closing track Powders. Unlike some of the other tracks we will talk about later I find the psychedelic guitars and methodical repeated refrains pretty infectious. I also think the spoken word conclusion to the song and by proxy the entire record is a great note to go out on.
The one song I don't like that interrupts an otherwise strong first half run is the lead single U&ME. The group vocals on the hook are extremely clunky and the verses feel like the band retreading old ground but nowhere nearly as good. It seemed like a really weird choice of lead single and it hasn't grown on me much since.
Chicago might be the quietest song on an already very quiet record and even when it starts to feel like the track is really building up something loud the conclusion isn't exactly piercing. While the second half of the song is better with thumping beats and rattling drums, the inherent goofiness of alt-j doesn't translate it all that well. Philadelphia is a track I'm not really sure what to do with. On the surface it sounds like a lot of the band's tracks but all of a sudden it introduces these incredibly dramatic string arrangements that make it sounds like a Bond theme. More than anything it's the constant shuffling of sonic intensity that makes it really difficult for the song to build up any momentum or do anything with it.
Walk A Mile is a full 6 and a half minutes so strap in because it feels even longer. The track spends quite a while drifting from refrain to refrain with the little punches of drums tapping away in the background throughout. The most surprising thing about the song is how little it actually develops with the addition of some psychedelic guitar noodling really being the only major change. While the actual sound of the song is pretty enticing it does very little with it over a 6 minute runtime that feels even longer. Losing My Mind is the last song left and it does equally little for me despite being more instrumentally involved. The song really tries to sell itself in a bunch of different ways from the stringy guitars to the backup vocals to the rush of group vocals to the stable little drum kicks. I'm not that impressed by any of its bells and whistles but I'm even more confused about how it's all supposed to come together into a song.
This is unfortunate. I've seen quite a few people calling this the slowest, quietest or even the most mature alt-j record yet, for better or for worse. I've always been someone who was a big fan of the bands quietest songs, one of my favorite tracks of their entire career Adeline is whisper quiet. I think the bigger issue is songwriting, where the band has left a lot of their best hooks and most compelling metaphors out of the reigns this time. I don't think the record is terrible in fact, I think there are some really compelling highlights that fans won't want to miss out on. But when all is said and done this is a largely inconsistent bunch with a second half that can be very taxing to work through. 5/10
Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:
This cover is both strange and simple. It's a little bit dated and takes me to a very early 2000's aesthetic but the shapes and lines of motion work well for the composition. I really like the shading and line quality used but I don't exactly know what it is I'm looking at. The incorporation of the branding is also simple, but fills space well. It's not the best of worst but I guess it gets the point across. 4.5/10
For more indie check out my review of Animal Collective's Time Skiffs here
