DMA’s rise to fame since their electric debut Hills End has been nothing short of impressive. The Aussie-born musicians found a home away from home in the UK, gathering a cult following of fans who miss the days of Oasis and Blur going head-to-head in the charts. Early singles such as Delete and Lay Down paved the way for their success, and they’ve only catapulted forwards since.
Step up their fourth LP, How Many Dreams? Their most ambitious yet, often scrapping the Britpop sound they’re known for to instead replace it with EDM and techno influences. The final product is, well, interesting.
The title track is an impressive opener, with O’Dell’s vocals sounding as empathic as ever and the instrumentation is a neat mix of power chords and electronic synths. The refrain is one of the album’s best as well, “How many dreams to find out what you have lost?” The follow-up Olympia is a more disappointing effort, however, mainly due to the instrumental. Guitarist Matt Mason has proven himself before to be more than a competent player on previous albums, but the riff on Olympia comes off as lazy and uninspired. Pair that with a run-of-the-mill backing track and the result is an unfortunately forgettable one.
From this point onwards the album goes on a journey of downs, ups and some more downs. Dear Future comes across as needlessly melodramatic, “The sadness blows in like the wind/I’m looking for a change”, however follow-up and first released single I Don’t Need To Hide possesses a euphoric chorus and enjoyable synth undertones.
The best run of tracks comes in the form of Jai Alai and Get Ravey, with the former being a piano ballad finally bringing some emotion to the table with Mason finding his form again through the form of some really enjoyable licks. Despite the questionable title Get Ravey containing the possibly eye-rolling lyrics, “I get lazy about you/ You get ravey”, the song has the album’s most anthemic and enjoyable chorus which will be a solid addition to the setlist.
The album comes to a grinding halt however in the form of Something We Are Overcoming, a track that has the potential to be DMA’s worst-ever single. The dry sound of the electronic beat doesn’t quite match the bravery of the band trying a new style, with the backing track sounding closer to a royalty-free instrumental than a homage to the trance of the 90s and noughties.
There’s quite a few enjoyable songs to enjoy on How Many Dreams? but the band seem to have commitment issues with this newfound sound. Never going fully electronic and never forgetting their Britpop roots, the Aussies seem to be stuck in a mind of two halves. Trying to blend the two sounds can be applauded, but the end result may leave fans wondering what went wrong – potentially back to the drawing board for album five.
Written by Niall McGreevy
Graphics by Jude Keenleyside