Gary’s Dream Pretty Blue
(Independent)
Before listening to the contents within, gazing at the album artwork, you peer into a bedroom. Attending to the music inside, you step fully in. With the dream pop of Gary’s Dream’s debut album, Pretty Blue, you’re not just in any bedroom: You’re in the essence of a bedroom. The opening track, “Edges,” starts somniferously with Vive Tilson’s ethereal vocals (we’re in the warm bedroom) and ends in four-on-the-floor drums from Shelby Surrano and overdriven guitar from Ryan Surrano (now we’re in the dank basement of a house show). Other songs have similar builds. Tracks like “The Only” and “Valensteins” sway like dandelions in the breeze, but by their ends, the vocals are belted, the overdrive is engaged, the cymbals crash, and the florets fly off. Reverb-soaked guitars abound. Spectral singing rings through. Nostalgic synths bring us back to childhood, to analog TVs, answering machines—to the bedroom. Above all, Pretty Blue is…blue. It’s the blue of approaching summer. It’s the blue of the bedroom walls. Welcome to Gary’s Dream’s blue world.
This article appears in July 2025.
