Hot off the heels of releasing three enthralling singles titled “Teenage Fantasies”, “Your Touch” and “Are You Gonna Sleep Tonight?”, and building a whole lot of hype ahead of the arrival of his latest album in the process, the unique, acclaimed and accomplished Irish singer/multi-instrumentalist whose music is influenced by the likes of A-ha, R.E.M., Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, AIR, The Monkees, Phil Spector and Mercury Rev as well as painters and film composers such as Monet, Miro, Dali, Hundertwasser, Van Gogh and Bernard Herrmann, and who composes songs, according to the musician himself, with the aim of making “music that [he loves] and [with the] hope that you might love it too”, Conor Furlong, has just unveiled his highly-anticipated fourth full-length record, Recurring Dream, in its entirety.
Speaking about the new compilation, its creator said, “You know that feeling of being a teenager? You’re feeling feelings you’ve never felt before and they’re the most powerful they will ever feel in your life? When you’re 15 or 16 and you hear an album that makes you want to shut out the world and listen to it over and over again? When that band, and that album, stays with you for the rest of your life? That feeling is what inspired this album.
“For me, the last golden period of popular music was 1991-95. I wasn’t a teenager at that time, but when I discovered that music for myself years later – Nevermind and In Utero, Out of Time and Automatic for the People, Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie – those are albums that I have played over and over again and will be with me until I die.
“And for some reason, right now, I wanted to make an album that evoked the feeling those albums gave me as a teenager, and still give me now.
“This album is for the lonely, awkward, insecure teenagers out there who look at the world, don’t understand it, don’t feel like they fit in, and for whom processed 808 beats and auto-tune isn’t going to help. And it’s for the twenty somethings, thirty somethings, forty somethings, fifty somethings, sixty somethings who still feel like that awkward teenager at heart, and who really just want to go to their bedrooms, put on headphones, turn it up, and drift away.”
Consisting of a total of ten entrancing new tracks, Recurring Dream is introduction by a delightfully upbeat instrumental offering named “Hi”, which gets things off to a terrifically energising start ahead of the aforementioned trio of enthralling recently-released singles, “Teenage Fantasies”, “Are You Gonna Sleep Tonight?” and “Your Touch”, respectively, each of which is a magnificently mellifluous, terrifically passionate and wonderfully rousing composition that packs a powerful punch. These three extremely impactful songs are succeeded by an equally impactful and also magnificently mellifluous, terrifically passionate and wonderfully rousing creation called “Survive”, after which a short soundbite interlude named “Voice” prefaces the absorbingly serene and exceedingly affecting “Enough”, which is followed by another trio of magnificently mellifluous, terrifically passionate and wonderfully rousing compositions that pack powerful punches, titled “Freaking Out”, “Run Away” and “Purple Reign”, respectively, the latter of which endows Recurring Dream with a conclusion that’s just as terrifically energising as its introduction.
Unsurprisingly, considering the sound and style of the three singles that preceded its release as well as the sound and style of all of the other songs that its creator has released to date, Conor Furlong’s latest compilation is comprised of a collection of consistently captivatingly melodic, splendidly expressive, fantastically heartfelt and immensely moving pop/rock songs, each of which, and by extension the album as a whole, makes for a very enjoyable listen and leaves a lasting impression.
If you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to investigate “Teenage Dreams” via its official music video below.
“Teenage Dreams” is also available to stream on Spotify and download on iTunes along with the rest of its newly-released parent record now.