The Weekly Coos

Kelly Lee Owens has taken pop to unique landscapes that perpetuate a beauty in the melodically tempered, allowing the pop tinges to escape into the ethos of her electronic/techno sonic structure. Her music is focused and sometimes mild as it reels into this escapist sound that can shift from Dream-Pop to Techno Pop, amongst others that find themselves within this realm of having the instrumentations speak louder. That’s been apparent with her albums since the beginning and continues to be so, even when the vibe remains linear. It can make the final product feel slightly homogenous, creating this acquiescing synergy that keeps you on a steady bed that flows emotionally. Her latest album Dreamstate does so by encompassing itself with a thematic sonic structure that takes you into a dream-like state of wonder as the sounds collide and you hear how the tempo switch contrasts the bombastic nature of Club-Pop/Electronic music which we’ve gotten more on the regular. Having something different is refreshing, but this form of expression is one that I find underscored, wherein one can pick up on the chosen queues from certain tones and concoctions between the layers, thus hearing something profound.

Dreamstate begins on a vocally silent note, setting the stage with the atmospheric textures of the electronic plane. It’s an escalating Techno beat where Kelly Lee Owens incorporates these haunting and angelic vocals in the background as an instrument, opening the gate of this musical world she will have you inhabit. It isn’t a bombastic venture that will have the pulsating percussion blaring sweet nothings in your ear, instead, it’s following a wave and allowing its sense of focus weave the electronic grooves that flutter in your ears. “Dark Angel” being the starting point elevates the succeeding tracks, especially when they play with vocal range, keeping the pop notes as the undercurrent that connects them. It allows the more percussion-laced “Higher” to transition to the synth-heavy “Rise,” following the ethos of dreamscape landscapes implanted in your mind through the sounds. Think about synesthesia and how those who have it see colors with music, Kelly Lee Owens wants you to see and feel the astral plane similarly, like with the breezy and uplifting cadences of “Air.” It has direction and sometimes the prose being sung becomes powerful, but what keeps Dreamstate purely afloat is the contrasting dance grooves between tracks.

“Ballad (In The End)” comes midway as the music hits its melancholic high, creating a bridge between soundscapes that contrast with more lively dance vibes in “Sunshine” compared to the dream-pop and mild IDM-influenced “Rise.” There is a moment in “Dreamstate,” the title song in the first half, where Kelly Lee Owens sings about living dreams, and actualizing them, creating the parallel between what is a more contemplative flow slowly becoming more of a livelier perspective. It’s why the music has a beautiful synergy that can overcome some of the homogenization in the tempos and BPMs, where that range feels minimal, despite being more expansive than expected. It’s how tracks like “Sunshine” and “Time To” can coexist while leading into the standout “Trust and Desire,” which like “Higher,” see Owens singing in a more structured format, giving us the broken walls of her vulnerable singing in them. It’s in similar conjunction with “Ballad (In The End),” where the combination of tempered atmospheric techno and singing hits a remote high. The album is co-produced with Phil Scully & Tom Rowlands, who help Owens mold the delivery and impact of its sounds and do so greatly.

As one who heavily enjoyed Dreamstate, it wasn’t something I loved; it’s an album that is tight and wounded beautifully to deliver a slight conceptual flow. However, the homogenization between moods can detract from some individual highs. They blend with the rest, creating this esoteric ideology that it’s easier to pick up more danceable cues, instead of the more profound moments. It makes it an album you sit with it further to get its impact, instead of getting lost in the vibes because the sounds themselves have their sense of depth. It’s like how the elevated and bright tones of “Sunshine” add a lovely contrast to the deeper “Ballad (In The End),” which talks about conquering your life instead of sitting there on the sidelines, missing out on the world around you. As much as the instrumental heavy tracks shine at times, hearing Kelly Lee Owens sing is where it surpasses its ceiling, more so, it helps you get by some of that homogenization because something is absorbing here, and with a track like “Love You Got,” you get something powerfully potent. It makes these minor negatives feel more akin to quibbles, like how the pacing can feel hurried.

I was a huge fan of Dreamstate even with some of its down moments. It’s an album with focus and knows the identity it wants to perpetuate as you listen through all that it offers. Kelly Lee Owens is an artist to watch, especially as she comes into her own with much of the techno-pop elements she imbues through the seams. It’s an album that takes you to a new place and makes you love every sound around it. I highly recommend it, even if it isn’t up your alley in sound because this will make anyone a fan.