“Dream Wife” by Dream Wife – Review
Review by John Wright
Score: 8/10
Enthusiasm in pop music is the supreme equalizer. Stop rolling your eyes, I swear, that’s not total gibberish. You can be a sonic god-child conceived in a recording studio and still make boring music if you don’t approach it with any feeling, whatever feeling that is. Even if your music is about being sad and lonely you may as well make it seem like you care about being sad and lonely.
Scottish art-school rock trio Dream Wife don’t have this problem, however, their brand of day-glo art school fuzzy guitar music is enthusiastically and unapologetically about the torrid romance and hedonism of youth. Luckily for them, in their chosen subject matter and musical genre, enthusiasm counts for a lot.
That’s not to say that youthful enthusiasm is the only asset the band has at their disposal. Guitarist Alice Go is a promising talent with a Johnny Marr-esque talent for composing earworm guitar licks and vocalist Rakel Mjoll possesses the sort of animal wailing voice you want for a band like this, plus the band has a nice vocal cohesion as a unit that adds depth to their sound.
Where Dream Wife falls short is in their lyricism, and while there are no real groaners on the album there’s no real memorable lyrical turns of phrase to be had either. The band are able enough songsmiths to be called competent, but that’s not a term of endearment.
Though again, it all comes back to enthusiasm, when it’s there in a high enough quantity it’s more than capable of propelling a good artist into “great” territory. Even if Dream Wife can’t manage that feat on enthusiasm and raw energy alone I’m confident that experience can only help this trio.
You can tune in from Noon to 2 PM to hear John co-host the Post Punk Roc Bloc on WPTS Radio and follow him on Twitter @Wright_JohnP. This review was edited by Derek Adams of the WPTS Editorial Board.
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