Dream a Garden

Inspired by the 2011 England riots and the work of bell hooks, Dream a Garden further develops the socio-political conscience of its predecessor, engaging particularly with the effects of neoliberalism.[12][13][14][15] Latham has stated that the album "is about the personal effects of living under capitalism. Why do I feel shit and why do the people I love feel shit when they look at billboards? It was a process of trying to work through those feelings, that culture – what society values that makes you feel like you don’t measure up.”[15] The first single from the album, "Unhappy", critiques corruptive elements of online porn.[16]

The album largely abandons the stark, club-based sound of Latham's debut in favor of a warmer sonic palette characterized by "fuzzed-out beats and washes of reverb-drenched and processed guitar."[15] Latham has described the sound as "not a total break from the world of Classical Curves, but rather an inversion," explaining that "Classical Curves is the surface, Dream a Garden is the exhaustion, frustration, anger, and dizziness underneath.[17] Describing the development of Latham's sound for Clash Music, Will Salmon wrote that "this is still angular, defiantly awkward music, but the diamond-hard production has been replaced with something woozier and stranger. The synths have warped and melted, the beats – when they're there at all – are muffled and subdued."[3] Regarding his decision to sing, Latham stated, “I pushed up against the point where I had to sing. You have to say it and be obvious about it sometimes."[15]

Dream a Garden received generally positive reviews from critics. The Guardian described the album as "strange and disorientating, idiosyncratic and frequently astonishing, a modern-day psychedelia that owes almost nothing to that genre’s hackneyed conventions and never forgets to temper the sublimity with darkness".[5] Writing for Clash Music, Will Salmon described the album as "optimistic, romantic and frequently lovely record – a startling and deliberate contrast to its predecessor," and wrote that "the garden in this dream is a place of respite from the frightening truths of our increasingly dystopian, poverty-stricken reality."[3] Despite a relatively positive review, The Wire opined that "Dream a Garden only starts to sound radical when it breaks the bounds of its songforms and an eerie melancholy steals in."[1] The Observer described the album as "a slow, fragmentary work taking cues from drone and post-punk, with Latham’s vocals half-buried in layers of sound," writing that it "aims to create friction, to disrupt the party, even if it doesn’t force its message down your throat."[18]

All songs written by Jam City.

Adapted from Discogs.[19]

• Jam City – performance, production, mixing
• Alex Sushon – mixing
• Liam Howe – engineer