Echoing 80s Dark wave, Nancy Whang’s lyrics on The Juan Maclean’s third album In a Dream (following Less than Human and The Future Will Come) lay over the seamless disco-infused back beat in the album. Under all of these intricate toss-ins from various genres of course, is the expected house dance beats. But unlike most house bands, The Juan Maclean’s mix of backgrounds in the music world, from Whang’s LCD Soundsystem days to Maclean’s Six Finger Satellite post-hardcore past expands the sounds and influences prominent on the record to more than your everyday DFM album.
Tracks such as “You Were a Runaway” and “Charlotte” lay dark, exposing lyrics on top of fast paced dance tracks and lush guitar riffs still manage to be separate entities of their own while helping pull the album together as a whole. There’s also the main stays of the album, opener “A Place Called Space” and follow up single “A Simple Design”, and although “A Place Called Space” is a dazzling arrangement of musical talent, it doesn’t make the following songs on the album seem any less spectacular. Instead, it opens the door for the following tracks (as an opener should) and builds anticipation for the rest of the album. The most miraculous part of this album is its strong tracks all the way through. The few, if any, weak tracks on this album are covered so thoroughly by the rest of the music that the tracks seem to meld together in one beautiful hour-long set.
9/10
By Stephanie Whalen
