Finding a place in the crossover between commercial radio and quality folk is a difficult endeavour. Filled to the brim with easy listening folk songs, Vance Joy’s debut album Dream Your Life Away successfully accomplishes this tricky feat.
Following the hugely successful Riptide, Dream Your Life Away is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Thankfully, it lives up to expectations with a generous 13 track album of songs that are mostly satisfying, charming and accessible to all. Dream Your Life Away works as an album due to its simplicity: each track is reduced to its core components of melody, vocals and lyrics. Any addition to this, like the brass in Everybody Dies Trying To Get It Right, is a carefully considered supplement to this balance. This makes for a comfortable listen. Essentially, this is the album everyone in the family will agree to listen to on a long car drive.
Although a consistently strong album, Dream Your Life Away is not without flaws. First Time is upbeat and catchy, but is far below the standard of the rest of the album. The lyrics of the repetitive chorus are far too similar to Cat Stevens’ classic The First Cut Is The Deepest: “You’ll find out that the deepest cut is the first time/First time’s always cut is the deepest.” This is like a twelve year old with a disregard for grammar changing the order of the words in their homework so they don’t get caught plagiarising from Wikipedia.
Thankfully though, album highlights Red Eye, Georgia and single Mess Is Mine get the album back well and truly on track. These songs, and the reappearance of Riptide and From Afar from his EP, make a strong impression on the listener. Closing track My Kind Of Man is splendid, especially compared to the opener Winds Of Change. This heart-warmer is a fitting end to the album and is one of his best tunes to date, possibly heralding a newfound maturity.
There’s a lot to like about Vance Joy’s debut album Dream Your Life Away. The consistency of the writing and its broad appeal will make it a favourite among many.
BY JOSH THORBURN
Best Track: My Kind Of Man
If You Like These, Then You’ll Like This: CAT STEVENS, MUMFORD AND SONS, SLEEP DECADE, THE MIDDLE EAST.
In A Word: Pleasant.
