By Joseph Filipak

Garden of Dreams, the Chicago ethereal band, has released a wonderfully romantic, shoegazing-esque pop disc with their latest release Everything. A lot of bands that write in this style of music tend to have their songs run into each other, thus giving you the feeling that the whole CD is one song. I have voiced that complaint myself, to a certain degree, but on Everything Garden of Dreams doesn't do that. Instead each song paints its own little watercolor, its own little Monet if you will, drawing you in with their enticing melodies. With a decade of experience writing and playing in the ethereal style, they bring a confidence to their music that is evident from the opening track. This confidence coupled with their first rate musicianship makes Everything one of the better CD's I have heard this year. It has a dreamlike quality to it and Gene Blalock's vocals are perfect.

Their press kit tells me that Garden of Dreams have been around for some ten years and have been recording since '94. Along with playing around Chicago and the Midwest, they have also been hitting the road playing all over this great land of ours. They have built a substantial following in both the US and Europe.

If you don't have any ethereal music in your CD collection, Everything would be a good place to start. However, I have to tell you that I never thought that this was the type of music that you put on to get a quick pop fix, but rather the type of music that you sit and listen to. Should you sit down and listen to Garden of Dreams, I know that you will enjoy this gem of a musical dreamscape.

More ChicagoGigs.com Reviews

Chicago Music Discussion Board