Vance Joy – Dream Your Life Away

A debut blessed with just enough heartfelt honesty...

Curly coiffed Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy’s placid surf balladry would, on the surface, seem like catnip to a particular brand of flower-crowned teenage girl.

However, his debut ‘Dream Your Life Away’ is blessed with just enough heartfelt honesty to spread the youthful nostalgia adeptly across any generational gaps.

Breakthrough single ‘Riptide’ (video below) is by a fair distance the best song here. Elsewhere, tracks such as ‘Wasted Time’, ‘Georgia’ and ‘First Time’ all elicit warm, candid reflections of formative romance.

That said, the record does become prone to dragging during some of its less well-defined, slower numbers.

6/10

Words: Jack Scourfield

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