Album Review: Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away

Vance who? Even if you’ve been living in a Siberian train tunnel you’d probably have heard the familiar strains of the all-conquering Riptide float along the tracks. Despite that song’s success it has taken Vance Joy, or James Keogh to his mum, until now to finally release his debut record. It’s the kind of folk-pop that you may have predicted (read: The Lumineers, The Avett Brothers), delivered honestly and without fear.

Each of the 13 tracks across Dream Your Life Away is well-balanced, Keogh backed by a more-than-capable band, and his arrangements, while not original, are effectively delivered. In fact, without taking anything away from its brilliance as a pop song, when compared with songs like Wasted Time and the tremolo-filled From Afar, Riptide is actually very poor in terms of arrangement and production.

Sometimes Dream Your Life Away can feel over-produced, with Keogh and producer Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers) following the same pattern of opening softly with acoustic guitar and vocal reverb before adding instruments and the occasional string section (We All Die Trying To Get It Right, Red Eye). By doing this on the majority of the record though, other songs like Georgia stand out for their lyrics and emotion.

The clear strength of Dream Your Life Away is its consistency. Each of the tracks has the potential to be an individual listener’s favourite. Each will inspire fans to learn the lyrics by heart, and to belt them out when next Vance Joy performs in their town.