It’s been a while since we heard from Andrew Combs, a man we described back in 2017 as “mining a rich seam of sixties melodicism inspired by the likes of Roy Orbison and Jimmy Webb.” On Dream Pictures, his sixth release, he eschews the broad sweep which informed many of the songs on previous discs and opts instead for a much more intimate listen. Performed by Combs and his collaborator, drummer Dom Billet (along with Spencer Collum on occasional pedal steel), the songs were written late at night in his garage, a place to retreat to after his kids were in bed and where he could play his guitar, paint and quietly contemplate.
And contemplation is as good a place to start off from regarding Dream Pictures. Listening to the 12 cuts here is, one the one hand, a relaxing experience, a balm for these heady days as the simple but perfectly arranged songs, in the main very laid back with gentle percussion, delicate guitar and creamy pedal steel, wash over you. On the other hand there’s an undercurrent, a heart of darkness, which adds a sense of edge to several of the songs. Electronic burblings and vague echoes of Krautrock percussion percolate throughout the album culminating in the wake up call which is To Love a song which which halfway through erupts in a blaze of guitars and banshee vocals. Much less dramatic but almost as unsettling is the Sparklehorse like Table For Blue with its throbbing keyboards and off kilter pedal steel interludes, the end result somewhat akin to a David Lynch like dream vista.
From the start Combs signposts that some of his dream pictures might not be a source of comfort as such and, at times, might actually be somewhat unsettling. The album kicks off with a short instrumental, Fly In My Wine, an atmospheric piece with its lonesome saloon bar piano, droning pedal steel and ambient sounds signalling that things can, sometimes, be more weird than you expect. However any sense of anxiety is immediately dispelled with the soothing (and quite wonderful) tones of Eventide but the following song, Point Across, while still quite beguiling in its delivery, has its shades as does Heavy The Heart which is quite a gorgeous song although all of Combs’ la la la’s can’t disguise the emotional hurt it describes. While Combs can offer Nilsson like pop on Mary Gold or sweet psychedelic vibes on Your Eyes And Me his contemplation seems to have led him to a bitter sweet acceptance of the darker side of life, a world removed from his family haven. The two closing songs, The Sea In Me and Dream Pictures cement this idea with the latter particularly memorable, resembling as it does the likes of Tim Buckley and Fred Neil.
So, quite a gorgeous listen, an album to wallow in but with darker tones for those who listen closely.