alt-J — The Dream — Album Review
Alternative | Indie
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It’s fair to say that the Leeds-based indie band known as alt-J was a very prominent band in the early to mid 2010’s. This was particularly thanks to their first two albums; 2012’s An Awesome Wave, and 2014’s This Is All Yours.
These two albums especially presented a highly unique style of indie and aesthetic to the band, that worked towards pushing the genre forward into how we perceive said genre in the modern era.
That being said, their third album, 2017’s Relaxer, wasn’t that bad of a project either. While leaning into more ambient territory, it still retained a lot of that uniqueness that alt-J champion.
But for what seemed like the longest time, Relaxer was the most recent original album fans had to pick from. It wouldn’t be until right now in 2022, that listeners would finally receive the band’s long-awaited fourth album.
The Dream was teased in late 2021, with the track “U&ME”; a track that got my hopes high that this album, despite being the first in a long time for the band, wouldn’t have lost any of the band’s style. Similar praise could be given to another one of their teaser tracks, named “Hard Drive Gold” and released earlier in 2022.
But as I mentioned in my 2021 End Of Year Review, in which I covered some of my most anticipated albums of 2022, The Dream was rightfully amongst them. Being the most generous helping of alt-J music in roughly half a decade, I was hoping for and expecting a very nostalgic project. But unfortunately, the vast majority of The Dream didn’t meet my expectations.
With just how dynamically the indie scene has changed in the last five years, I almost feel as if alt-J got left behind in a sense. And as a result, their unique 2010’s aesthetic felt painfully scarce on their fourth album.
If you can try to imagine the bare-bones, or the bare minimum of what an indie album would sound like, The Dream sounds exactly like that, without much vibrancy or character at all. The title, the album cover, and of course the music, make for a trifecta of boring and unmemorable. And given the level of anticipation that was pumped into the release of the project, The Dream is more of a nightmarish letdown.
There are of course some tracks that still stand as enjoyable listens; namely the two aforementioned teaser tracks. However, there was little to nothing on this album that really blew me away. Quite a lot of it I found, simply leaned to heavily into being more mellow and stripped back. And as a result, almost all of what made alt-J enjoyable in the first place was compromised.
in terms of narrative, it’s a bit confusing to grasp as well. alt-J have always had a knack for pseudo-surrealist songwriting, but when you have a whole intro that’s seeming just about Coca-Cola, one cannot help but wonder what was really going through the bands mind when making this. On top of that, an abundance of repetitive lyrics only add another layer of disappointment to the album.
I wholeheartedly hope that this album doesn’t spell out the beginning of the decline when it comes to the unique appeal of alt-J. The only remedy for this, would be another album that sees a full return of the band’s beloved aesthetic; and I hope it arrives sooner rather than later.
Favourite Tracks: U&ME | Hard Drive Gold
Least Favourite Tracks: Get Better | Chicago
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