Dream’s To Whoever Wants to Hear is NOT GOOD

Lyrics

This new Dream EP... it's NOT GOOD. (explosion animation and sound effect) This is the debut EP of Minecraft player, Internet persona and YouTuber Dream. A man who quickly began to capitalize off his sudden viral fame by releasing some music. Back in 2021 you guys might remember some random singles such as "Road Trip" or "Mask", which were, to put it nicely, passable. I can barely remember those tracks at this point, not only because they were not that memorable, but it also feels like so much has happened to Dream since the release of these two tracks, stuff that's been way more relevant to his career than releasing music, like when he did a face reveal and the entire Internet mercilessly roasted him, and then he essentially responded by trying to unface reveal himself. Now he's just permantly trapped in character behind the mask, I guess. A mask that like I said at one point he made a song about explaining the point of the mask, but then he gave up on the point of the mask and now I guess there's a new point to the mask that the Internet is mean. Mind you, I don't endorse any of the bullying that Dream suffered at the hands of Internet trolls just because he showed who he was. He absolutely, positivey did not deserve that. And most likely, a lot of the ridicule came down to just a lot of jealousy around his, uh, success and his position, plus just the anticipation of what he looked like being built up so much. People most likely would have talked shit on the guy, short of them looking like Oscar Isaac. Regardless though, he's back to hiding behind the mask and now on this project it feels like he's kinda hiding behind something else too. Because while the lyrics on these tracks, many of them read like they're coming from a personal place, the music feels like anything but. From the Owl City ass breakbeats and pillowy Porter Robinson synths on "Slow Down" to the formulaic ballad and EDM fusion on the track "Kind of Love", which we've heard a million times by now. Just nothing on this EP sounds specific to Dream, it's more like a copy of a copy of a copy, a watered down version of a watered down version. Borrowing spare ideas from AJR, from Chainsmokers and about a dozen different TikTok bedroom poppers, but simultaneously bringing a fraction of the vibrance and fun and pop appeal that a lot of those artists usually have in their music. Now, what's even worse on these tracks though are the vocals, which mind you don't sound horrible, but the reason the vocals on this thing don't sound horrible is because they are airbrushed and pitch corrected and just basically touched up to the point where they sound inhuman. But effects can only do so much, because as I listen to Dream's singing on this project I can still hear how flat and emotionless a lot of his perfomances are: "So high like I'm on Everest". Yeah, Yung Gravy is about the best sounding thing on that track and maybe this entire EP. And Dream's lackluster vocals become even more apparent when he's dropping one harmonized robot voice on top of one harmonized robot voice this just sounds like AI generated sad boy pop, with each song sounding more sterile and computerized than the next, and not even in an interesting way that is sometimes the case in electronic music and electropop, where you get a truly immersive , synthetic experience or by using technology as a means to simulate some interpretation of humanity. Conversely, this just feels like a mediocre singer-songwriter using digital tools to close some talent gaps and doing that over some of the most basic pap production he could get his hands on. Even when we get a pretty nude vocal on this thing like on the track "Spotlight", the verse singing is tiny, it's pitiful, it's sad, it's weak. But yeah, from the lyrics to the beat to the tunes, pretty much everything on this project is plain and basic, dime a dozen, average at best. And I think that anyone with Dream's budget and resources could have pulled this together or just made something better. Whoever Wants to Hear is most definitely not me. This Dream EP... it's NOT GOOD. (explosion animation and sound effect)