After releasing 4 singles over the past 5 months, English indie rock band Alt-J recently released the album entitled The Dream. It’s the 4th studio album that the band has released to date.
More info about Alt-J
Alt-J are an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds (UK), by Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Thom Sonny Green (drums), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Gwilym Sainsbury (guitar/bass).
Their debut album An Awesome Wave was released in May 2012 in Europe, and in September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Sainsbury left the band in early 2014. Their second album, This Is All Yours, was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to number one in the United Kingdom.
Here’s my review of The Dream
The album opens with the track “Bane” which gives us the dreamy atmosphere that perfectly suits the title of the album. From here the direction is less consistent. Beautifully crafted songs, poppy folky, futuristic but mostly held together by the recognizable voice of frontman Joe Newman.
The folky “Get Better” is a beautiful minimalistic song where Newman sounds vulnerable. “I still pretend you’re only out of sight in another room smiling at your phone” he sings and the emotion sounds raw and true.
Emotion that is a bit lacking on most of the album. The soundscapes with a multitude of voices complimenting the lead vocals sound often quite clinical.
Does that mean the album is not enjoyable? No, there’s enough to discover, from the orchestrations (in “Philadelphia” for example where even an opera voice shines through) to the almost Delta blues sound of “Walk a Mile” and “Delta”.
I’m not sure if Alt-J will have the same succes with this album as they had with their award winning This is all yours (2014) but at almost 50 minutes “The Dream” is very pleasant to listen to.
To get an idea of their sound on this album, crank up one of the singles off the album, “Hard Drive Gold” below:
You can stream the album on Spotify and all major music streaming platforms.
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