What do you do when the thing you love most doesn’t seem to love you back? That’s the central question of Bishops’ latest release, Dream Easy. The title seems to have a double meaning to me. Bishops’ wall-of-sound approach to fuzz rock is easy to zone out to in the best of ways, bringing to mind early 90s acts like Bob Mould and Miracle Legion. It also feels like an ironic commentary on the distance between the goals we envision for ourselves and our lived realities.
Overall, this album is about the general impatience and disgust of folks in their twenties. Sometimes it just feels like we’re spinning our wheels. This sentiment is best expressed in “Stay Young Pt II” (a continuation of a track from their first album), a 3-minute song that repeats these lyrics:
When I was young, rock and roll kept me alive
We were dumb, but I knew we would survive
I’m over it
I’m fucking over it
“Cut the Cord” explores the tension between wanting to pack it in and waiting just a little longer to see if things will work out:
Well you’ve got to cut the cord
You’re hurt by both sides of the sword
You want to leave it all behind
It’s always burning up your mind
Gave up way too soon
You threw it all away, why?
If you want to hear the truth
Then you can listen while I play guitar in my room
Depending on what you’re going through, this could be a tough album to listen to. Bishops doesn’t try to answer the question — at least not this time around. Dream Easy revels in being in the thick of it, even as it’s a cathartic release of anguish. For capturing an important moment in everyone’s lives so thoroughly, Dream Easy is already one of my favorite albums of 2016.