Poliça - Dreams Go

A certain darkness has always been synonymous with Poliça; suffused with brooding atmosphere as much of their music is, they have long been specialists in soundtracking long, introspective, dark nights of the soul. Which is perhaps why this first album since 2020, and fifth proper overall, comes as a surprise - after a tumultuous few years for the art-pop outfit, you would perhaps expect them to be on sonically downbeat form. And ‘Dreams Go’ is certainly an album bearing a heavy emotional load, containing as it does the final recordings by bassist and founder member Chris Bierden, who has since lost the ability to play owing to glioblastoma. And yet, this record is the sound of a band bearing said emotional weight with great elegance, and perhaps even optimism. There is a new lightness to their sound, one rooted in bringing Channy Leaneagh’s vocals to the front rather than drowning them in layers of synth. The effect is hazy and handsome, something in evidence on the pretty, minimalist ‘Revival’ or the gorgeous lullaby of ‘She Knows Me’, which is stripped-back to the point of being gossamer-thin. Even when revisiting familiar Poliça territory, with thick electronics and programmed drums, there’s reinvention - see the ambient stretches of ‘Wasted Me’, for instance, or the breezy pace at which ‘Wound Up’ unfolds. The title track closes the record on a danceable note, facing up to the death of dreams with resolve and defiance - and, in the process, opening a new chapter for the band.