Dream Pop

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Looking for perfectly pretty and ethereal tracks that qualify as 'dream pop,' whether actually defined that way or not (any era, any genre). Want some obvious (Cocteau Twins??) and non-obvious--if it floats it'll fit. Prefer key song suggestions to full albums. (Sorry if this has been done. I word-searched dream pop and didn't come across much.)

― dan fitz (danfitz), Monday, 10 February 2003 15:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

Also - if you feel up to it - how do you define it?

― dan fitz (danfitz), Monday, 10 February 2003 15:49 (10 years ago) Permalink

ned Raggett to thread! FAST!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 10 February 2003 15:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

Julee Cruise is very good. (I haven't heard her newest album that she did without David Lynch, but the first two are great.)

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 10 February 2003 16:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Monkees-"Porpoise Song"

― Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 10 February 2003 16:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'm bad at picking individual key songs, but Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You" may be the most famous dream pop single in America.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 10 February 2003 16:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Lush should be a good choice.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 10 February 2003 16:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

some more:
Pale Saints - In Ribbons (album)
Galaxie 500 - Today (album)
Luna - Tiger Lily (song)
Luna - 23 minutes in Brussels (song)
Mojave 3 - In Love with a View (song)
Elysian Fields - Jack in the Box (song)
Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing (album), maybe Tears Are in Your Eyes (song)

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

Seana Carmody - "Rocket Out Of Time"

― Paul (scifisoul), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

re: Lush; if you want more floatiness, you'll want to check into pre-Lovelife Lush, specifically. (i personally like most everything they've done, including the harder stuff, but a lot of people do draw that line.) most obvious example would be "Sweetness and Light," and let's see..."Light from a Dead Star," "When I Die," "Thoughtforms," "Babytalk," "Etheriel," "Leaves Me Cold," "Second Sight," "De-Luxe," "Nothing Natural," "Untogether," "Monochrome," "Undertow," "The Invisible Man," "Starlust"...i'm sure there's things i'm missing, too. i'd say the most cohesive thing they ever did as a whole was Split, personally---which also had one of my favourite taglines ever in adverts: The album is Split; opinion is not. (i think this is second only to the tagline for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads: "Ten Songs that All End the Same Way." >D)

i'd say some poppier Dead Can Dance stuff would fit in here as well, too. though most of their output is rather all over the place, when they pop, they most definitely dream-pop. probably mostly cos of the hypnoticness that is Brendan Perry's voice.

certain My Bloody Valentines songs could even work in this category, although i know a lot of people would say they're too noisy to really be "pop." but "Sometimes" immediately comes to mind. "Soon" would probably work as well. i might even say "Glider." and for more creepy dreams, "No More Sorry" would work.

― janni (janni), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

Air's "Kelly Watch the Stars"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:38 (10 years ago) Permalink

St Etienne - London Belongs to Me

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

ned Raggett to thread! FAST!

Um, what a lot of other people said. But since nobody's mentioned A R Kane yet and they actually coined the term in the first place, them. Look for sixty-nine, 'i' and the Americana comp.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 February 2003 17:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

For anyone who's had to sit through one of my Stereolab screeds, this'll be a shockah!

There's some great dreamy momments on _Switched On_ and _Peng!_ (particularly "Super Falling Star", or whatever it's called). There might even be a couple on _Random Transient..._, but if there are, i've forgotten 'em.

Don't forget the first This Mortal Coil album, _It'll End in Tears_, which is totally essential. There were two others, which would probably fit the bill, but they never grabbed me the way that the first one did.

The first Blind Mr. Jones album is great for some of this sorta stuff, in a shoegazery vein, natch. Seek out _Stereo Musicale_, but avoid the tepid follow-on album _Tatooine_.

Oh yeah, the most recent Cowboy Junkies album opens with a great gauzy, echoy bit. Album's called _Open_ (i think, it's not sitting here in front of me_.) Seek it out for the first two tracks alone.

_Treasure_ by the Cocteau Twins would probably work well for this. Maybe even the first couple Flying Saucer Attack albums, too (though they spread the noise pretty thick at times, which might be a turn-off.)

That should keep ya busy for a little while, anyways.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Monday, 10 February 2003 18:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

Thanks all. Creepy dreams are fine too, so long as they're not too depressing. Particularly looking forward to hearing some of the wispy-female-vocal stuff, a la Julee Cruise (perfect suggestion, right in line with what I was thinking). Any pre-'90s stuff?

― dan fitz (danfitz), Monday, 10 February 2003 18:10 (10 years ago) Permalink

One Dove. Dot Allison.

― Tim D (Tim D), Monday, 10 February 2003 18:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Look for sixty-nine, 'i' and the Americana comp. "

I haven't been able to find 69 or 'I'. What about New Clear Child, how is that album?

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 10 February 2003 18:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

seefeel & mahogany are my favs.

― ddb, Monday, 10 February 2003 18:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

What about New Clear Child, how is that album?

A pale shadow. Some nice moments but I would not recommend it as a place to start.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 February 2003 19:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

these two non-obvious choices come to mind: Ann Clark & Martyn Bates - "To Music" (spoken Rilke + wordless sighs. gorgeous) and Trees - "The Garden of Jane Delawney" (as close as song gets to dream)

― summerslastsound (summerslastsound), Monday, 10 February 2003 19:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

make that Anne Clark. ahem.

― summerslastsound (summerslastsound), Monday, 10 February 2003 19:59 (10 years ago) Permalink

Call and Response - California floating in space
and i suppose
orange cake mix

― ddd, Monday, 10 February 2003 20:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

Disco Inferno - Footprints in Snow
Múm - Grasi vaxin göng (green grass of tunnel)
Piano Magic - C'est un Mauvais Presage Lorsque Ton Aureole a Tombe
Cocteau Twins - Lorelei

― coelcanth, Monday, 10 February 2003 20:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

Lorelei's Everyone Must Touch the Stove has some gorgeous, swirling, dreampoppy moments as well, mixed in with quasi-jazzy moments. definitely worth your time, although it may not completely fit your strict definition...

― janni (janni), Monday, 10 February 2003 20:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

piano magic - "not fair," "i am the sub-librarian"

― brains (cerybut), Monday, 10 February 2003 20:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

There is a phantastic track on the new Monster Movie (the other people from Slowdive). It's called Waiting or something like that (Sleeping is great as well).

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 10 February 2003 21:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mercury Rev-See You On The Other Side

I think that album is them at thier most dream poppy.

― Chris Davis (Chris Davis), Monday, 10 February 2003 21:39 (10 years ago) Permalink

the 4ad label is the best place to start.

― kephm, Monday, 10 February 2003 21:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

slowdive - blue skied an' clear

― coelcanth, Monday, 10 February 2003 22:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mahogany (oh BABY), Auburn Lull, a fair whack of what's on the Bedazzled and Clairecords labels..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 10 February 2003 22:13 (10 years ago) Permalink

Have you heard Sugar Plant? Amazing Japanese dream pop. Try and find the double cd Happy/Trance Mellow.

― Scott Seward, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 00:22 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Smashing Pumpkins - "Mayonaise," "Drown"

― Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 00:26 (10 years ago) Permalink

"Lullaby from 'Rosemary's Baby'"-Krzysztof Komeda

― Arthur (Arthur), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 01:02 (10 years ago) Permalink

"In heaven" from the Eraserhead soundtrack

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 01:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Stereolab I'd pick is "Contact" from the Switched On comp.

Tons more to add here... Alison's Halo, Shallow, the first Bowery Electric album. And I'd pick The Church's cover of "The Porpoise Song" instead of the Monkees original for maximum float.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 01:08 (10 years ago) Permalink

Second "The Porpoise Song" cover, especially the conclusion. Mindblowingly great.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 01:08 (10 years ago) Permalink

agreed with Sugar Plant; you probably can find Happy/Trance Mellow in a used CD store. i've seen plenty around here.

also, if you're bringing up Smashing Pumpkins, "Glynis" is also really dreamy and pretty. oh, and their collaboration with Red Red Meat on that Sweet Relief comp, "Sad Peter Pan." their take on it is lovely.

i forgot earlier, when running down My Bloody Valentine suspects: "Lose My Breath." STUNNING.

― janni (janni), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 01:25 (10 years ago) Permalink

bien 'oublie moi'
marine time keepers 'of all the things'
ulrich schnauss 'passing by'

― keith (keithmcl), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

I always thought dreamppop was the american way of saying shoegazer, but it seems from peoples replies they are somewhat different beasts, so all the answers I was going to venture feel a bit muddled, now.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

Anyway, I'd venture forth the following:

Any Cocteaus, esp. "Treasure", "Head over Heels" and "Victorialand"; Slowdive's "Souvlaki", any early Lush stuff. I agree with Chris re Mercury Rev's "See you on the Other Side", lovely trippy album, the one after that was nice too (though I prefer their earlier, heavy work)

No ones mentioned Godspeed! You Black Emperor - for shame. "Slow Riot For Zero Kanada" is wonderful. Perhaps more "prog rock orchestral" than "dreampop" but I like it in that sense.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:30 (10 years ago) Permalink

bows 'king deluxe' or any of their songs really.

― keith (keithmcl), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 05:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

Destroy C&R for Norton's sad attempts at viral marketing. That still pissed me off.

Also add: Mean Red Spiders either the albums StarsandSons or the more Lushlike Still Life Fast Moving specially for the wonderful "Awkward Over Coffee".
Toss in the occaisional King Cobb Steelie tune since it has nowhere else to go other then right next to Triumph 2000's album.
The Church, mmmmmmmmmm, yummy. (Chris has already been but Kate to thread)
Steal 'Car Wash Hair' from Mercury Rev's major label version of Boces.
King Black Acid's '60 Cycles Numb' may be the best song to come out of PDX in the 90s. The Dandy Warhol's cover of Little Drummer Boy is close though. As is several tunes from Swoon23's albums. All dreampop I supose.
I also really dug Hopewell's album The Curved Glass. Im willing to give them a second chance live I loved it so much.
What about Helium? Whatever happened to Ash after Libarness?
If your enjoying This Mortal Coil, don't forget to pick up Chris Bell's I Am The Cosmos which is surely one of the most wonderful things Rykodisc has dug up.

Thats enough out of me. Time for bed. Its -15 for chrissakes.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 05:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

Oh, Mahogany, definitely. Lots of other Darla bands, too; Saloon, Aarktica, Alsace Lorraine, plus lots of their Bliss Out series.

Yeah, Cowboy Junkies to a point. 'Lay It Down', from 1996, has some good stuff in that vein.

The Melody Unit, from Seattle, are one of the best new dream-pop bands going. Find their 'Choose Your Own Adventure' album, then get the earlier stuff. They're actually my definition of the term...

Can I add The Sundays?

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 07:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Lilys' "Elizabeth Colour Wheel" from the first record, In The Presence of Nothing.

The really, really long track from the Drop Nineteens "Delaware" record.

Two hot dream pop numbers right there... might go listen to them myself.

― j breitling (BlastsofStatic), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 21:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

Anything by Frazier Chorus..... fantastic band.

― russ t, Thursday, 13 February 2003 16:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

Montgolfier Brothers "Seventeen Stars" album

― black bag, Thursday, 13 February 2003 19:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

sparklehorse

― JP Albin (John Paul Albin), Saturday, 5 April 2003 06:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

OCTOBER PROJECT! That's a good cd to start with. They have two cds. And the female vocalists gone solo - Mary Fahl and Marina Bellica.

― rddantes, Sunday, 13 July 2003 04:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

Can I add The Sundays?

Yes. Especially Blind, which is way underrated. In fact, it's probably my favorite album for this "genre"

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 13 July 2003 04:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

stina nordenstam especially "dynamite"
the child readers (field recordings of fires, crickets etc & harmonium dronings mixed w/ location recorded sweet folky murmurings)

― bob snoom, Sunday, 13 July 2003 09:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

broadcast 'come on let's go'

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 13 July 2003 10:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

Chapterhouse - Pearl
Slowdive - Just For A Day/Pygmalion
Lush - Spooky
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas, Victorialand, Treasure...
Kitchens Of Distinction - Strange Free World

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 13 July 2003 13:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

anything by Rafael Toral like mbv w/out the tunes or drums or any words just amorphous major key drone soup frequencies but it's not a goth drone so i reckon it's dream pop.
also Tujiko Noriko. haven't got her new one on tomlab yet (supposed to be more pop) but the 2 she's had out on mego are beautiful sinsongy warm glitch-pop w/ a superficial resemblance to bjork but they've got that harmonically ambiguous ryuichi sakamoto / toru taemitsu thing going for them (in a v diy kinda way)

― bob snoom, Sunday, 13 July 2003 15:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

oh, and his name is alive you probably want to stick just to the "mouth to mouth" album and "the dirt eaters" ep cos everything before is a tad too goth and a lot of what came after is either just way too patchy, or they ended up going kinda indie-soul-pop on us in a boringly earnest non-har mar superstar kinda way

― bob snoom, Sunday, 13 July 2003 15:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

oh... and hugo largo's second album "mettle" - 2 basses , weeping violin and mimi goese's vocals / words. inexplicably their first album "drum" is a real stinker and to be avoided.
cynthia dall - 2 albums on drag city. do them

― bob snoom, Sunday, 13 July 2003 15:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

oh, and his name is alive you probably want to stick just to the "mouth to mouth" album and "the dirt eaters" ep cos everything before is a tad too goth

pah, 'home is in your head' is their only perfect record. but the bit about the later releases being patchy is overly generous, post 'fort lake' they have been a disaster.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 13 July 2003 15:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

"tatooine" needs a re-evaluation : "drop for days" is maybe their best song; beats anything in "stereo musicale" by a mile.

― f, Saturday, 3 January 2004 23:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

Red House Painters - "Grace Cathedral Park," "Mistress"
The Smashing Pumpkins - "Whir," "Obscured"
Lycia - "Pray"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 3 January 2004 23:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

Everything everything everything by Love Spirals Downwards, the most effortlessly ethereal band in the history of the world, and utterly unfairly cursed with the phrase 'new age' by many. Bastard.

― Stupid (Stupid), Sunday, 4 January 2004 04:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

The Dandy Warhols - Nietzsche

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 4 January 2004 05:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

Velocity Girl's Copacetic or the underrated six-song comp.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 4 January 2004 05:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

Dream Sequence - Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls.

One of the first dreampop singles I reckon, from an unjustly forgotten album. Produced by Martin Hannett with Vini Reilly on guitar. The single version is better than the one on the album though.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Sunday, 4 January 2004 16:48 (9 years ago) Permalink

4 years pass...

I'm digging so much of the new dream-pop floating about... Asobi Seksu, Je Suis Animal, A Sunny Day In Glasgow. It's a good time to be liking this stuff.

― Masonic Boom, Sunday, 3 August 2008 23:30 (4 years ago) Permalink

how the fuuuuck were Cranes not mentioned anywhere in this thread?? i mean, there are several songs from Wings of Joy, Forever and Loved that are among the best dream pop songs ever recorded!

― stephen, Sunday, 3 August 2008 23:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

They were always accused of being a poor-man's Smiths, but I've always considered The Ocean Blue's Cerulean more of a dream pop record than anything else. "When Life Was Easy," "Breezing up," "Falling Through The Ice" are the most obvious examples.

― turkey, Monday, 4 August 2008 10:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Modern dream pop:

Engineers ("One In Seven"; "Thrasher")

Citified ("Weddings"; "March Through Mayday"; "There's A Way To Make You Try")

The Clientele?

― turkey, Monday, 4 August 2008 10:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

Dreampop seems to mean so many different things to different people.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 4 August 2008 12:21 (4 years ago) Permalink

Dreampop seems to mean so many different things to different people.

You said it.

Does Hood count? Destroy All Dreamers, epic45, Lanterna, Manual, Ulrich Schnauss ...

― zaxxon25, Monday, 4 August 2008 12:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

I like when it's dreamy because of some musical "talent" (for lack of a better word I promise!) rather than dreamy because it's sloppy and drained in grungy delay. Does that mean I'm confined to the obvious picks, like Cocteau Twins?

― sonderangerbot, Monday, 4 August 2008 12:48 (4 years ago) Permalink

it does not get significantly dreampoppier than Ariel Pink, in my estimation...

― henry s, Monday, 4 August 2008 13:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

It seems to be this catch-all term that means, like... girly but not twee, shoegazey without the noize or the 60s affectations... though it also seems to be applied to stuff that's too electronicky to be shoegaze or nu-gaze. I'm still confused by people who actually try to retroactively apply some kind of genre statement to Shoegaze (I read somewhere recently a "history" of shoegazing trying to propose that My Bloody Valentine were not a seminal shoegaze band, that the first shoegaze band was Ride. Um, what?)

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 4 August 2008 13:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

also not mentioned but worth contemplating is hex. haven't heard that album in years but i rembember it fondly.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 4 August 2008 14:36 (4 years ago) Permalink

July Skies newest one. Sounds a bit like Manual in some spots.

― keythkeyth, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 00:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

charmparticles = dream pop luv

― electricsound, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 00:38 (4 years ago) Permalink

4 years pass...

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but thought the self-titled album by sister duo 2:54 deserved more attention than a blurb in the faves of 2012 thread, but perhaps less than its own thread:

― A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 4 September 2012 18:00 (8 months ago) Permalink

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