dream pop – Queen City Sounds and Art

Coloma’s Introspective and Melancholic Dream Pop Single “Skylights” Eases Lingering Emotional Turmoil With Its Gentle Touch

Coloma brings an intimate air to “Skylights” with a steady, jazz-like beat and gentle guitar accents and gossamer melodies around deeply introspective, melancholic vocals. It has a reflective mood processing sadness and a sense of guilt over how things have gone and a yearning for some kind of reconciliation. In moments the way the vocals and guitar are arranged and sync up in their tones is reminiscent of early Mojave 3, Mazzy Star and the more dreamlike moments of Throwing Muses. The tenderly shimmering slowcore style of the song keeps you engaged with its expansive vulnerability and in the emotional moment and treating psychological pain with the gentleness required to get through the toughest dips in mood and truly feel the feelings one might bury on initial impact in order to not be sunk by them. The sensitive and subtle production all around really helps the song to shine and for the emotional beats to hit perfectly. Listen to “Skylights” on YouTube and follow Coloma at the links provided.

Coloma on Instagram

Coloma on Apple Music

Moodlighting’s Effervescent Single “Guardrail” is a Dream Pop Song About the Foibles of the Tourist Mindset

Moodlighting, photo courtesy the artists

Moodlighting has been talented at crafting simple and uplifting melodies with guitar and vocals from its early days when the duo was performing in Denver before relocating to California. Its new single “Guardrail” is paired with “Rude sometimes” and the song showcases layers of delicate guitar with crystalline tone and expertly accented, chiming jangle riffs that complement perfectly almost ethereal vocals like a latter day Slumberland Records. The song sparkles and sounds like it’s dancing about with how the rhythms are arranged. And yet the song appears to be about being annoyed with tourists in Australia, you know the kind, that treat places they visit like an exotic and disposable commodity instead of a place with a true sense of place and organic community that has to contend with how attractive it is to people who don’t feel like they need to respect the complexity and dignity of a place and people that aren’t just there to cater to your implicitly consumerist mindset. But the song on its own feels like a soothing and unexpected breeze in the summer and an evolution into an expanded songwriting style for the band whose new album party school! drops in early August. Listen to “Guardrail” on Spotify and follow moodlighting at the links below.

moodlighting on Instagram

moodlighting on Bandcamp

Bad Flamingo Expands Into Sultry, Synth-Infused Dream Pop on “Velvet”

Bad Flamingo, photo courtesy the artists

Bad Flamingo continues its streak of musical evolution and surprise with its latest single “Velvet.” Not only is there an enigmatic, noir video with grainy visuals like something captured in the 90s on Super-8 or DV but for this song the duo introduces more full use of synth/keyboards to create mood, texture and an emotional resonance that is both reflective, romantic and sultry. The cascading keyboard figure and the spare percussion subtle bass work coupled with vocals that go far wider than the band has typically gone in the past from vibrant lows to soaring highs like Martha Davis from The Motels. It’s more like a dark dream pop New Wave song than some of the more gritty blues pop of a good stretch of the band’s earlier songs yet it preserves the band’s gift for making love sound like a deliciously forbidden but pure and beautiful thing all at once. Watch the video for “Velvet” on YouTube and follow Bad Flamingo at the links below.

badflamingomusic.com

Bad Flamingo on Facebook

Bad Flamingo on Instagram

atmos bloom’s Tender Dream Pop Single “Everything” is a Warmly Rendered Soundtrack to Hopeful Reflection

The uplifting, delicate energy of “Everything” accompanied by the music video with layers of cityscapes with the band atmos bloom superimposed over it, or vice versa, feels like a soundtrack to hopeful reflection. The guitar leads seem to dance over a buoyant rhythm even in the more melancholic and meditative moments. Tilda Gratton’s vocals seem to switch with complete facility between vulnerable and warm and yearning and urgent all with a delicacy of feeling that is accented and anchored by a minimal but comfortingly ever present bass line locked in with percussion that expertly guides the moods of the song with its pacing. The melodic shift in the last third of the song with a little more grit in an otherwise fairly ethereal song for just a few moments truly sets this song apart from a standard modern dream pop song. Watch the video for “Everything” on YouTube and follow London’s atmos bloom at the links provided.

atmos bloom on Facebook

atmos bloom on Instagram

atmos bloom on Bandcamp

Hissuae’s Cinematic, Intimate and Transcendent Art Pop Single “Guilty Pleasure” Mixes the Personal With the Mythical

Hissuae breathes a sense of the intimate and cinematic into “Guilty Pleasure” with her ethereal and vulnerable vocals. The song’s arrangements are orchestral and minimal in their intertwining of sweeping piano and percussion so that the song feels like an immersive, living entity in the listening. In the background the barest touch of synth lends an otherworldly quality that puts the more human elements in the foreground and catches one’s full attention. The singer-songwriter’s singing style is reminiscent of the ways Kate Bush and Loreena McKennitt could intermingle the personal with the mythical in fine nuances of vocal expression. For a song that seems to be about transcending mundane, everyday existence that is the perfect tonal mode for the song to take. Listen to “Guilty Pleasure” on Spotify and connect with Hissuae on Bandcamp.

Lukka’s Synth-Infused Dream Pop Single “Fabric of the Cosmos” is a Ballad of Acceptance of a Universe in a Constant State of Flux

A sense of constant expansion flows through the psychedelic harmonies of Lukka’s “Fabric of the Cosmos.” The song seems to be an extended reflection on the concept of impermanence in an ever changing universe as reflected in our own natures and how every moment is different from the next in ways that we may not notice without taking out a moment to take in that realization and how acceptance of this eternal state of flux and contingent realities can be found in considering essence of the natural world around us like the ocean and the metaphor attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus about not being able to step into the same river twice. Our culture places a premium on confidence in absolutes but Lukka here seems to suggest the greater wisdom is in being able to live with a more fluid and dynamic existence that is closer to the actual nature of the world in which we find ourselves. Philosophical/metaphysical considerations aside the song is a soothing and bit of synth-infused space rock/dream pop that fans of Stargazer Lilies and Public Memory will appreciate best.

MAKEUP Breathes Otherworldly and Fantastical Melodies Into the Ethereal Synthpop of “Finger Driver”

The swirls of ethereal harmonics and melodies in the hazy synths of MAKEUP’s “Finger Driver” pair well with a background of icy tones and a spare electronic beat. The artist’s processed vocals offer an emotional uplift in a song that could otherwise be melancholic. The mood is reminiscent of lightly fogged DIY skate parties in the late 2010s and like a soundtrack for a more hopeful indie science fiction thriller. Fans of Chromatics and Electric Youth will find some strong resonance in MAKEUP’s mastery of tone and organic yet otherworldly and fantastical melodies. Listen to “Finger Driver” on Spotify.

Dream Pop Single “moonlight” by sydastry and Its Warmly Ethereal Melodies Brings Clarity to Uncomfortable Thoughts

An early morning, dreamlike energy courses through sydastry’s “moonlight.” The songwriter’s vocal style shifts easily from singing to more spoken word passages to suit the moment as the song progresses. It seems as though the more spoken sections represent reflecting in expository fashion and the singing more in the moment and being in the present tense. The music is melodic and ethereal, breezy, luminous and gentle whether in forward motion or lingering on a feeling. It’s the kind of pop song without standard arrangement or structure that has a seemingly intuitive flow of rhythm and tonal flourishes that invites one into its own entrancing logic. It’s like a song that should have been in a Satoshi Kon film that was never made, imbued with a comforting mood as it lays out uncomfortable subjects in a manner that make them seem more explicable. Listen to “moonlight” on Bandcamp and follow Dallas-Fort Worth/based artist sydastry at the link below.

sydastry.com

Sasha & The Bear Create a Space to Lean Into One’s Feelings of Emotional Abandonment on Downtempo Dream Pop Single “Peaches”

Sasha & The Bear, photo courtesy the artists

Sasha & The Bear display a command of mood and pace on “Peaches.” The warm and intimate vocals are reflective and soulfully melancholic are framed initially by a soft synth melody before the minimal beat comes in and backing vocals augment the sense of loss and emotional pain at feeling left abandoned by someone with whom you felt you had a connection and a bond stronger than something casual. The confusion and hurt in the final lines of the song “you said it wasn’t me/but I watched you choose” is familiar to anyone that has ever experienced being abruptly dumped without fully knowing why by someone who may have their own demons to tangle with but who is lacking the psychological self-awareness and appropriate language to articulate why they have to leave a relationship that doesn’t seem to be toxic. The masterful use of texture, the tonal richness and the duo’s expert crafting or rhythm feels like processing a deep sadness and giving oneself the psychic space to really lean into one’s feelings without having to hold back or be overwhelmed by them. Listen to “Peaches” on Spotify and follow Sasha & The Bear at the links provided.

Sasha & The Bear on Apple Music

Sasha & The Bear on Twitter

Sasha & The Bear on TikTok

Sasha & The Bear on Instagram

Sasha & The Bear on YouTube

Sara Diana’s Lushly Rendered “Is That Blood?” is a Dark Dream Pop Song About Passion and Trust

“Is That Blood?” begins with a spare but urgent piano line before Sara Diana’s strong and soulful vocals come in with a brooding backdrop of cycling low end and a minimalistic beats. The song seems to be about a romance that is deep and caught up in a mutual acceptance of aspects of those involved that they feel the need to keep secret or hidden from most people for fear of judgment. In the song’s orchestral arrangements the songwriter perfectly places the emotional beats of the song. Fans of the early music of Lorde will find something resonant here but in a darker dream pop vein yet both artists seem to draw upon inspiration from modern R&B production. Listen to “Is That Blood?” on Spotify and follow Sara Diana at the links provided.

Sara Diana on TikTok

Sara Diana onInstagram

Sara Diana on YouTube