Review Summary: No filler, no additives, just some good ol' catchy indie pop.
Cincinnati, Ohio indie pop group Belle Histoire have been making a bit of a name for themselves in the local scenes. Their brand of infectious indie pop has proven to be of the variety that gets lodged in your brain for days and days on end. Fronted by the charismatic frontwoman, Jane Smith, the band is quickly gaining popularity.
Dreamers is their debut album, released on InVogue Records. Musically, the album isn't really anything to get super excited about. It's fairly by-the-books indie pop. The place where Belle Histoire really shines is in their vocalist Jane Smith. Sounding at many times like a hybrid of Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift, she is the only thing really pushing these songs beyond anything other than average and generic. Her voice takes the forefront of most of the songs, and the instrumentation serves as more of a pleasant background to her soaring melodies. Combined with the standard indie pop instrumentation, the entirety of the album makes for an outrageously catchy affair.
Album opener "Don't Run Away" is a perfect example of the aforementioned formula. Complete with "Whoa-oh"'s, the song has some of the most infectious hooks on the entire record, and also showcases Jane's remarkable vocal talent. There are a couple obligatory tracks such as "Home" that serve more as ballads of a sort, generally accompanied mostly by keys. "Know Your Heart" is among the best tracks on the album, further emphasizing the catchy hooks that the group has such a knack for. This formula, while executed to an extremely successful degree, does eventually present an issue.
The album is just way too
predictable. Everything presented here is done quite well, and there are no surprises, but that is my main gripe with
Dreamers; it just lacks some ambition. It plays everything way too safe, and suffers for it. It's quite obvious the band has a lot of talent, but their formula could use some altering. But from a group as young as Belle Histoire is,
Dreamers is a fun and hook-ridden debut that proves to be a great first effort. Though lacking variety, it's an album full of songs to sing along to, and will embed itself in your head for a long, long time.
