Tag: dream pop

Single Review: “Honey Touch”

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“Honey Touch” is the latest single from Charlotte Bumgarner, a singer-songwriter based in Tulsa, OK, released this December 11th on Manor Records.

The first word that popped in my mind within the opening seconds is “Sweetness”, the track opens with a soft synth pad chord, giving the sense of entering into a cloud, and when Charlotte’s delicate vocals slowly radiate, the cloud walls feel like aural cotton candy, the feeling only intensifies with the first lines:

honey touch, sweetest taste oh a sugar rush

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Charlotte Bumgarner

While the dreamy ambience keeps glowing in the background constantly, the lyrics take a bittersweet detour, especially towards the end, when Charlotte laments:

i can never let go of you or this feeling in my chest

feeling in my chest

After those lines are uttered, the music ends in a fadeout, the clouds fade away into the distance and we slowly drop down back into reality.

The single is a delightful example of Dream-Pop, the soft sounds and ambience took me on a brief sonic watercolor daydream, the ideal soundtrack for a winter sunset.

Single Review: “Nihilistic Dreamer”

“Nihilistic Dreamer” is the latest single from Senseless Optimism, the musical project of Brit Tsewole from Lowell, MA, self-released this November 27th.

The track is another dreamy display of Brit’s special blend of Jazz-influenced Indie-Pop, sprinkled with her unique voice on top, a soothing smoky contralto sounding unlike anything else I’ve heard in the genre.

In addition to her voice, the most noticeable feature in her music is her compositional talent, with her unusual chord structures and guitar playing, she plays with the pop rulebook, adding her own artsy doodlings into it.

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Brit Tsewole – Senseless Optimism

The song is a melancholy-laden tune about the desire to escape, escape from our situation, from our past, or from a stiffening place:

And now I wonder why I try.

Fly my way outside,

Fly away.

The minor chords are in charge, augmenting the negative feelings with the desolate guitar strumming, with a brief sweet interlude towards the end of the song, like a sunny daydream in the middle of a dreary day, only to return to reality in the final bars.

The final result is like a honey lemon tea, with extra lemon, it may be heavy and sour but the sweetness goes up to the tongue in droplets, something unusual to make sense of an unusual approaching winter.