album review: each is a dream, alice rose

 

With Each is a Dream, Alice Rose is given a vehicle with which to showcase her gentle, distinctive vocals. The Danish singer has a playful quirkiness that sets her apart from other singers of the indie-folk ilk and this album reveals layer after layer of her personality, with soft ballads and sunny pop numbers existing side-by-side.

Album opener ‘Last Happy End’ presents Alice’s hushed vocal over a repetitive electronic beep, a contrast that gives way to strings that swell and fold around the lyrics. We easily transition from this to ‘Into My Heart’, an infectious and playful slice of European pop at it’s best. Things falter a bit a few songs later with ‘Mistakes’, which errs on the side of childlike cheesiness, but are restored immediately after with the ‘So Hot’, a seductive serenade to someone who is – as the title suggests –  so hot.

The songwriting on this album comes from the heart and nowhere on the album is that clearer than on ‘Father’, a heart-wrenching and honest track, where Alice asks ‘and if you pass on, what would I do?’. ‘Smoke’ is wispy and billowing (with a spot-on title), while ‘Riot’ is lo-fi and brooding. The album is finished off with the title track, a twinkling, easy number that merges Alice’s lilting voice with the deep vocal of John Parish.

This is a solid, well-rounded debut that has tones of both night and day, sunshine and moonlight. Alice Rose is a versatile artist with a knack for writing raw and simple lyrics that fit perfectly alongside dreamy melodies.