“an album that’s a total delight” The Sunday Times
“A catchy and cosy indie offering” The Evening Standard
“New York lo-fi fave gets his Valentine’s heart on” UNCUT
“Like finding a little sun-drenched corner of Central Park to sit down in and call your own” DIY Magazine
“like a daydream, crackling with familiarity, and yet from somewhere far beyond” The Line of Best Fit
“a series of slicker, off piste jangle pop gems” CLASH
“Wonderfully daft blast of summery indie pop that sounds like Mac De Marco and Julian Casablancas cutting loose on a beach holiday” The New Cue
New York’s self-styled ‘lofi jangle dream slacker bedroom pop’ artist JW Francis releases new album Dream House today (January 27th) via London-based label Sunday Best Recordings.
Alongside a run of UK in-store dates starting from today and going into next week JW announces he will be returning for a European and UK tour through April and May (dates for both tours below).
Across 12 quirky, technicolour sonic vignettes, JW Francis showcases every side of his wholesome 3D approach to guitar pop. Indie-rock, jangle, slacker, bedroom pop and softly-whirring psych combine to build his Dream House – the foundations held in earthy human emotion, with a roof in the clouds.
Opening double-salvo ‘Going Home To A Party’ and ‘Casino’ highlight his penchant for broad-grinning recourse to simple joy, whilst ‘Dream House’ and ‘Sweet As A Rose’ explore floaty subtleties, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Basketball’ leans into bouncy and surreal playfulness.
When JW isn’t writing songs about his own life or off-kilter imagery, he writes about other people – most notably around February when he writes valentines songs on his fans’ behalf. Dream House is in fact built around this collection of glorious tracks written for other people. JW elaborates a little on the premise below:
“Every year, about 6 weeks before Valentine’s Day, I make the following post on social media:
“If you send me the name of your Valentine, and the reason you love them, I’ll write a song for them on your behalf.”
That is how Dream House was born, 3 years ago. Over the past three years, I have received over 300 requests from fans to write songs for their loved ones. All of the songs on Dream House come from this project, some of them have been reworked to speak more to the artist’s life, others have remained exactly as they were first written. Ultimately, this is an album about caring for others, and the way we express it.”
Written and recorded at the start of 2021 in NYC, Dream House takes cues from The Strokes, with hints of Lou Reed, Mac Demarco or Her’s however the project is still quintessential JW Francis. The blissful melodies and dreamy instrumentation perfectly fit the album’s title.
Dream House follows the hugely well received WANDERKID and We Share a Similar Joy in proving that JW is the king of laid-back and effortlessly cool song-making. Released on 27th January, the album will be available on both cream and Green vinyl, as well as CD (pre-order here).
