Dreamwalker (Vinyl)

Montreal's fever dream pop duo, Sorry Girls, returns with their third album Dreamwalker out via Arbutus Records. Their eccentric blend of nostalgic 70s power ballads and 80s kitsch breaks through new thresholds, dismantling futile illusions to brave the cold and ask what lies ahead.

Since forming in 2015, Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan Konrad Obront have been creating their own brand of lush pleasure seeking synth-pop. With a knack for matching personal lyrics with an off-kilter sound, their Lynchian world is free and uncanny. Everything seems familiar, a tune lapping an old dreamscape, and yet something is slightly off.

The band debuted in 2019 with the self-produced Deborah, earning praise from Pitchfork and Gorilla vs Bear. Their 2023 spirited sophomore album, Bravo!, showcased a more live-band sound. With headlining shows at festivals like Pop Montreal, SXSW, and the Red Bull Music Festival, and tours with artists like TOPS, Devon Welsh (Majical Cloudz), and Sean Nicholas Savage, they've honed their organic approach to music.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac's Tusk era, the band set up camp at Montreal's Two Sisters Recording Studio for several months to make Dreamwalker. Imposing a working time constraint, their aim was more band collaboration, and quick and decisive artistic decisions to stay as true as possible to the music.

The result is a sound that is earnest, emotional and lucid. Washy production techniques and punchy bass lines pair with softer whimsical piano trills and gentle drums, recreating the thematic push-pull between two-worlds. The lyricism toys with Idyllic visions of love objects, fantasies of future utopias, and the obsessive longing for an ease and newness to sweep in.

Dreamwalker is self-aware and ironically self-effacing, trapped in the reflection of a window. The album calls for boldness-to slide open the handles and step into the unknown.