Vicious Dreams
Self-titled
Get ready, dear readers because this is one of the good ones. It’s tough getting music recommendations, because most of the time, people don’t know what they’re talking about. So, when I made up a pile of compelling music to go through my ears perked up when Vicious Dreams came on. I was expecting music that might sound like contenders to put on my heavy rotation, not something that I immediately fell in love with. I had to replay it right away to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating the awesoness of this record.
Vicious Dreams are a powerpop punk trio from Orlando Florida. I’m glad the state is showing it’s more than just stereotypes we see about it on social media (like “Florida Man”). I could describe the sound of the band as furious, relentless, and driving punk rock and roll – basically everything that’s good about music. Sort of like if Undertones, Buzzcocks, the Damned and Rezillos body parts were made into a Frankenstein and pumped full of amphetamines. Their debut selftitled is short but a non-stop fun party, with catchy-as-hell melodies, heavy riffs, with bassist and guitarists James and Amanda trading off vocals. The songs are about — what else — relationships, self-discovery, isolation, and the confines of life. Heavy stuff, but Vicious Dreams makes even THAT sound fun. The songs are raging and just fast enough. The sound is raw yet perfectly discernible. That doesn’t happen very often. One can only imagine the kind of live show these guys put on, and I’m eager just thinking about seeing them in a sweaty bar.
Get your vinyl copy while you can, folks, because that well is soon running dry for small independent bands like this one. The awesome coke bottle color is sadly out of stock, but you can still get the badass black vinyl on their bandcamp page. At just $10 it’s a full-on steal for one of the best records of 2020. And you get that awesome spooky cover to contemplate while you’re at it. It comes with a 8X10 of said awesome cover art, and a lyric sheet designed like a TV guide.
Vicious Dreams have made quite an impression and released one hell of a debut album. They’re definitely a band to watch and here’s hoping they’re working on a follow up this one. They set the bar quite high, but something tells me, we haven’t heard the best of them yet. More music should sound like this.
Get your copy here.
