'5 Dreams' Review: Soft Plastics' debut album is a buffet of bizarre and you got to enjoy its perplexities
Soft Plastics have released their debut studio album '5 Dreams' on June 5, via Paper Bag Records. Vocalist Carey Mercer, who is the former songwriter and frontman for indie rock band Frog Eyes, the band he shared for eighteen years with drummer (and wife) Mel Campbell, turns his focus now to his new project, Soft Plastics.
The songs on the new LP were written by Mercer in the fall and winter of 2018-2019, mere months after the disbanding of Frog Eyes. A press statement reveals, "The influences on 5 Dreams are post-punk, new wave, mariachi, new-wave mariachi, dub, hip hop, goth-rock, taking cues and according gobs of respect to Blixa Bargeld, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Talk Talk, Happy Mondays—all rung through the grime of a northern port city."
"It’s the interplay of the drums and the gelling effect of the synthesizer, the baritone running downhill with the bass, the trumpets and pedal steel filling up the gaps," the statement adds.
Mercer described the influences by saying, “The songs aren’t tied to a cohesive theme, but they do exist in a land that is deeply wet, dark, flooded—occasionally a gilded sun-beam comes out of nowhere and the song just stops and stares in bloody awe at what we are given, what we might see.”
For those familiar with Frog Eyes, Mercer isn't one to let conventional musical structures and vocals dictate his creative expression. One may relate the two bands, yet Soft Plastics' '5 Dreams' comes off intentionally quirkier. Lyrically it themes medieval whilst sharing glimpses into Mercer's psyche. Swap out the lute, harp or lyre from the hands of a bard and his band for synth, brass and electric instruments and you may understand the sonic integrity and lyrical poetry of the album. More specifically, '5 Dreams' feels like the playful prodding of a jester but with the tension of a bard.
High-pitched metronome-like clicks and repeated clips are applied over a 4/4 beat of varied textures in 'Here's Where the Sun Was'. On Mercer's vocals, think somewhere between the croonings of Talk Talk or Happy Mondays and an animated vampiric rant. Altering his vocal thickness and pitch at various moments, Mercer sings lyrics like, "I’m a poor boy from the siltland. Second singer in my uncle’s band. When we play the night right. Silver sounds right. From the devil’s nuclear moon " and "Green mists are rising. My violin is crying that my Uncle’s gone too... And the band is adrift, their wine I shall grift, and offer offerings Up to the moon." 'Here's Where the Sun Was' was released in April.
With songs like 'The Angels', you will see that'5 Dreams' is a buffet of the bizarre. Opening with a cybernetic pulse driving the rhythm, swishing and splashes are added as texture while Mercer's vocals are a mix between a ringmaster announcing a circus freak and doom-and-gloom religious preaching.
In 'I Pay No Heed to the Signs', we hear the swooning decay and darkness of nightlife. With brass and '70s-ish psychedelic strums of the guitar, the song appears like a jazzy meltdown in a goth club as Mercer contorts and swells with "Devotional poetry. Seven quick knocks and you will know that it’s me. I come from over the sea. But only floating angels can float over our sea. Howling that the children have been seen. Raiders raid the salons and the salons are steamed. Roll on, you band of free. Flickering fires floating in the fens "
A lot can be said of '5 Dreams', but a lot should be left to interpretation, and this seems to be the dimension between these two connections that Soft Plastics want to leave you suspended in. Don't overthink it, but get carried away when you want to: a seriously playful gesture which leads us to recommend '5 Dreams' for poetry enthusiasts and those who enjoy the weird side of music.
You can watch 'Here's Where the Sun Was' here: