Album Review: Blackbird Blackbird – D R E A M S T U C K

D R E A M S T U C K clocks in at a whopping twenty-two songs, yet there’s never a drop in quality throughout the album’s run.

That could be down to how Blackbird Blackbird – the solo project of California-based musician Mikey Maramag – approaches the recording of his fifth studio album. Maramag worked on demos every day, five days a week, with some songs coming to him quite quickly – in the space of a day – and others taking longer.

That dedication to the craft of songwriting and translating them into what we hear on D R E A M S T U C K still requires both talent and a singular vision to make it work, and it is here that Blackbird Blackbird triumphs on the album.    

On Dandylines, Maramag brings his soulful vocal style to bear on an arrangement that flows around dream pop and R&B polarities, but in such a relaxed style that you can get lost in the moment and not quite absorb how creative and catalytic the track actually is.

Even where the indie side of dream pop unassumingly asserts itself, as on Clementine and The Darkness of the Day, that R&B theme makes itself known in the vocals, giving the chorus both a pop energy and, again, a soulful undercurrent. The balance shifts with On & On; it’s more electronic and has a clubby feel thanks to the piano hooks, yet within the context of the album, that is cohesive and wonderfully balanced.

As diverse as the tracks can come across on paper, the vocals of Mikey Maramag himself, and also the sensitivity of the production and careful thought put into the instrumentation of the album as a whole, not just the individual songs, but how they link into each other, gives D R E A M S T U C K a wonderful aura of pop, soul, and indie. Think Hot Chip and Empire of the Sun via White Lies, and you’ll get a flavour of the album’s central core of sound.

If you’re a fan of music that places an emphasis on the craft of writing songs, but also on making an album in the traditional sense of it being as immersive an experience as possible for the listener, you’ll love every moment of D R E A M S T U C K. You can download the album on Bandcamp, and it’s also streaming on Spotify. Catch up with Blackbird Blackbird on Instagram for more listening options.