Whimsical - Sleep To Dream [CD]

2017 release of this long lost and unheard album. Whimsical is an Indiana band who made quite a name for themselves back in the day. Their first album, 2000's exquisitely-named Setting Suns Are Semi-Circles remains a cult-classic, dreampop with an emphasis on the pop. The band dissolved a couple of years later with the follow up only 90% finished-everyone adrift in confusion and ennui, the way all relationships end. Time passes, and the heart longs for what it once had. The band got back together last year in order to complete the album, to transform their ellipsis into an exclamation point. And with Sleep To Dream, it's finally happened. The result sounds amazing; a little like Lush, only with more pop smarts; and a little like the Cranberries, only without the messiah complex and annoying vocal tics. Which is to say Sleep To Dream is better than both, and that is very good indeed. It only took one listen for Saint Marie Records, quickly making a name for itself as the most vital Dreampop label going, to beg to release it.