It Was A Good Dream’s New Post-Rock Hits With Captivating Emotional Freedom

It Was A Good Dream’s stirring new dunk!records release Help Me to Recollect reveals a captivating new musical vision of some of the connective life force holding us together, transforming that fleeting concept into a subtly elevated musical number. The album is entirely instrumental, composed of a carefully presented melodic post-rock soundscape that feels laid out in a manner to allow for the observer and listener to see their own life experiences reflected back at them. The music goes through a wide range of intensities, from a heavy point at the beginning towards subtler stops at the end, taking those ends of what’s really the same thread into a new context, where a fuller than normal, connecting scope gets revealed.

Even though overall they often favor sparse instrumentation at least comparatively speaking, the aptly named It Was A Good Dream do not really hold back in what they do deliver. Their music feels refreshingly complex, and like it would easily prove a transformative draw for the right listener. They utilize the natural emotional resonance of their instruments to chart a path of discovering something past a horizon beyond which you might not have previously looked and then coming to terms with and understanding this new (to you) environment, at least in a sense.

After an ethereal and intense opening, the band cascade down through subtler portions that feel at times like the musical equivalent of a flowing stream before reaching points like the almost all-piano ballad “falling/running/mute,” the third track out of five on their new album. Going further on, there’s a fleeting element of clearly electrified beats that pop up next like some kind of visually poignant flower or other forest life hanging out above this metaphorical journey, and once they’ve got you hooked by the fluttering sounds, the band come in with their intense stirring conclusion.

A fascinating emotional proposition makes itself known by the end, where the band seem to have arrived at a conclusion that sheer intensity like does occasionally pop up doesn’t have to be defined by conventional limits. Instead, it’s something that can be welcomed as part of a broader, beautiful picture like the one It Was A Good Dream paint on Help Me to Recollect.

5/5 Stars

Listen below via Bandcamp