An absorbing new album from DreamGood, Paris Novella pairs synth-driven art-pop with catchy guitar work, danceable rhythms, and theatrical vocal hooks, shifting between sleek pop appeal and more atmospheric passages. The concept album from longtime trio Mitchell Sloan, Joshua Heath, and Glenn Heath draws on personal experiences and imagined scenarios, exploring contrasting emotional states through a distinctly eccentric pop sensibility.
The album’s production is a colorfully dynamic tour-de-force, particularly fond of momentum-filled song structures, quickly apparent on opening track “Spaceman.” Its confident “flexing my body” vocal proclamations combine with a chugging rock demeanor, shades of “Personal Jesus.” Its lyrical reverence of confidence and sexuality delights, as does the synth-laden injection in the title-bearing hook. Ensuing track “Looking for Love” then struts a more synth-driven pop introspection, exploring love mythology and the drive to find true connection. Its western-y guitar twangs and calming synths pair with visceral lyricism and memorable vocals for a sound fondly reminiscent of Magnetic Fields there.
Elsewhere, “Never Been to Paris” consumes in its sonorous synth tones and fuzzy guitar work, melding with an anthemic vocal elongation for a strong build. The switch-ups between upfront vocal ardor and spacey synth sophistication are striking, with the “hard to be heaven when you’re not an angel” sequence expanding into a hooky multi-layered vocal exuberance. “Kings” is another standout, its nocturnal synth tones and trip-hop rhythms complemented by perspectives on showing one’s emotion in a society that tends to value bottling it up. The “we came from far beyond” soaring vocal work is particularly engrossing. Filled with high-quality songwriting, Paris Novella is an excellent full-length output from DreamGood.
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“Kings” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
