Taking influence from a host of awesome and admittedly older influences— Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Eagles, and even the straighter Neil Young -penned moments from those early CSN&Y albums—“Dreamer” is a song that tips its hat to the past while stepping out into a bright future.
But this is no nostalgic look back, well, perhaps it is a bit, but with enough modern alt-rock and indie vibes woven into this wonderful design, “Dreamer” stands on its own two feet in the here and now.
Brand of Indigo captures the spirit of what those bands were doing—understanding how to take a slightly rootsy and wilfully ragged baseline sound and cover it with lush vocals, scintillating sonics, neat musical motifs, and slick guitar lines—so that it also sits comfortably in the modern musical landscape.
“Dreamer” also offers some poised and poetic lyricism, again sounding, to me at least, like a Neil Young sentiment from his mid-seventies golden age.
The result of all of this cross-genre, era-jumping intertwining is a song that knows where it comes from, is ideally at home in the modern moment and proceeds to set a high bar for roots rock and alt-country from now on.
