Album Review: Soda Blonde - Dream Big

According to the press release, Dream Big - The ‘Blonde’s follow up to 2021 fabulous debut Small Talk – is “a mature awakening to the world at large; one that dives deeper and hits harder than its predecessor.”

All well and good but it wouldn’t matter a fig if they didn’t continue to craft and faultlessly arrange beautiful songs with choruses you’ll be singing along with as you hear them for the first time. This record takes what was so great about the first one and, against the odds, improves on it.

Lead single ‘Bad Machine’ pulses with dance floor nous behind Faye O’Rourke’s always exceptional vocals as she bemoans the badness in herself and all of us and that decaying guitar line is genius. The title track builds from what sounds like plucked harp as O’Rourke describes another domestic and then turns left with choral voices, strangled guitar and busy drums before settling into a metronomic groove. ‘Space Baby’ starts off like a Madonna circa ‘Don’t Tell Me’ rearrangement of Damien Dempsey’s ‘It’s All Good’ before heading off somewhere else entirely. Imagine a Fleetwood Mac lover’s quarrel produced by Goldfrapp and you’d nearly be there.

‘An Accident’ is a country waltz complete with a slide solo dripping in melancholia and this is but one of the beautiful moments on Dream Big. There’s also the strings driving ‘Midnight Show’, the shuffling drums of ‘My First Name’, and the delicate piano and bass of ‘Less Than Nothing’ amongst many others.

The should I, shouldn't I of the closing 'Going Out' will speak to anyone who isn't eighteen anymore. "Tell me where I'm going...probably should have eaten...everyone is busy...hoping that I'll run into someone" are the musings of someone whose priorities have changed as they do when there's a few more miles on the clock. It's marvellous and the added bonus is it'll be a comfort when you decide to ignore the phone and stay on the couch next Saturday night.

What would Lana Del Ray sound like if she was a better singer in a better band and got over all the tiresome ennui? Here’s your answer and this is very much the work of a band with each member vital to the overall late-night, neon-flecked sound. This record also sports the best repeated use of the word ‘Baby’ since U2 went to Berlin. Electro pop with real warmth and soul. Hats off.