Dream the Electric Sleep - Beneath the Dark Wide Sky

I remember how I first came into contact with Dream the Electric Sleep's music in the summer of 2014 on the pages of some random blog tucked away in a far corner of the music web. They had released a new album earlier that year called Heretics and the eye-catching cover artwork combined with their sound being described as "Pink Floyd meets shoegaze" led me to give the recommended track, "Elizabeth", a song that immediately hooked me as did the rest of that fantastic Heretics record. While the Pink Floyd comparison turned out to be not super dialed in, Heretics blended an indie-style production and sound with shoegaze atmospherics and unabashed prog ambition as the record is a concept album about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the rest of the Suffragette movement - not exactly your usual topic for this type of music. Now that I've finally given follow up CD Beneath the Dark Wide Sky some spins I'm happy to say that this Kentucky-based trio has delivered the goods here.

Working with noted producer Nick Raskulinecz, Beneath the Dark Wide Sky exchanges some of the group's progressive inclinations for a cleaner, more refined sound across the board. The songs here are all noticeably shorter with only two tracks moving past the six minute mark, while the album as a whole runs a quarter of an hour less than its predecessor did as the band has done a great job of distilling their sound down to its core elements, trimming the fat without stripping out any of the meat. This new approach is felt from the first note as opener "Drift" accomplishes in five minutes what took them over eight on Heretics' initial piece, before pivoting into the very Foo Fighters-esque rocker "Let the Light Flood In", again swapping out long-winded atmospherics for straight ahead hooks and a huge chorus. The rest of the material on Beneath the Dark Wide Sky follows the direction of these first two songs, trading big on guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Matt Page's better-than-ever vocals and an entire disc of spectacular drumming from Joey Waters, particularly on album highlights "Flight" and "Headlights". If you're worried that Dream the Electric Sleep have gone full-on pop then you'll be comforted by the presence of the dark and excellent instrumental "We Who Blackout the Sun" as well as the longest and most overtly progressive track on offer here, "Culling the Herd". Just like with Heretics the band has managed to write and pace Beneath the Dark Wide Sky so that not only does it not lose any steam after the halfway point, some of the best songs on the record are tucked back there: the chunky anthem "Hanging by Time" (Matt Page does an excellent Dave Grohl impression on this song), the grunge-laced "Black Wind", and the other ballad-type song on the album, the wonderfully Southern-flavored "The Good Night Sky", as the boys seal things up with the dreamy closer "All Good Things".

Just like King's did with Dogman with the help of producer Brendan O'Brien, Dream the Electric Sleep was able to achieve a similar reevaluation and reinterpretation of their sound with Nick Raskulinecz's help and have successfully retained the songwriting abilities and ear for genre-blending that helped make Heretics such a great album for Beneath the Dark Wide Sky. Catchy as hell, surprisingly heavy at times and without a second wasted, this album is hopefully the one that helps Dream the Electric Sleep break out of their niche and into the mainstream spotlight.

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