Australian duo Say Lou Lou caught my attention with a dreamy pop number "Everything We Touch" in the summer last year and have had me keeping an ear out for a full length to drop, as well as returning to the song often which is about as dream pop as it gets with a light dance rhythm, moderate progression and catchy lyrics, but the hook was strong and the airy, lush instrumentation fused with their voices, the aesthetic had me hooked. These two twin sisters have music in the family, their farther being Steven Kilbey of Australian rockers "The Church", and this, their debut comes after a string of singles dating back to 2012. Its taken a while for this one to come together.
Like the majority of pop records I've listened to, Lucid Dreaming blows its load with the first three tracks, putting the albums catchiest numbers right at the beginning, and leaving the album experience to drift into the darkness with thirty minutes of lack luster music. The opening two tracks have it down with rich, absorbing strings and synths that build fantastic atmosphere for the duos gentle voices to glide through and create a dazzlingly lush and dreamy energy, brought home with lyrics to inspire some imagination "all that glitter, all that foreign gold". "Games For Girls" switches lanes with a chirpy dance number that brings tight rhythmic groove and a playful theme, while retaining a little of their dreamy synths in places. Its simplistic and enjoyable, but after this point the album quickly turns stale.
"Julian" slows the pace down with a temperate mood, but its the lyrics on this track and many past it that fail to inspire, with direct and unimaginative use of language the spell is broken and the albums slowing of pace amplifies a lack of energy and spark the opening numbers had. One line in particular stuck out "Take another sip from you coffee cup, I'm looking at your lips as you're drinking up", it just didn't do anything for me, and despite some moderate vocal inflections and hooks it just didn't pick back up the energy or pace until the final track "Skylights".
There's not much to complain about aesthetically, the album has a great pallet of absorbing airy synths that border ethereal at times. They compliment the duo vocals and the rest of the instrumentation is accommodating, but nothing here that will surprise or astound, its relatively tame and accessible. The album was a big disappointment considering the contrast in quality between four good tracks and the rest. They definitely have a spark, but for the most of this record its muted.
Favorite Tracks: Everything We Touch, Glitter, Games For Girls, Skylights
Rating: 3/10