If you thought HighSchool’s 2021 output was pretty brilliant… Well, you would be quite right. Still, the sun kissed songs on last year’s EP ‘Forever at Last’ pale just a little bit in comparison to the Melbourne trio’s new Dan Carey-produced offering, ‘Only A Dream’, released through none other than – you guessed it – the illustrious Speedy Wunderground.
On ‘Only A Dream’, HighSchool once more match the level of the bands they form an amalgamation of. There’s a lovely interplay going on here between 80’s melancholia and 00’s nostalgia, with ‘Only A Dream’ being reminiscent of The Cure’s most addictive songs as well as French Films’ ‘Golden Sea’. That being said, HighSchool’s new single is the type of tune that feels like an evergreen itself on first listen.
Known to HighSchool’s rapidly growing fan base as the band’s ‘go-to’ set closer, ‘Only A Dream’ features synth melodies and bass lines that make half October feel like early June. Having spent the summer writing in Sicily, the band took a sunny spirit with them to the Speedy Wunderground studios when they started to work with Dan Carey.
With a chorus that is miraculously even more catchy than the song’s driving verses, ‘Only A Dream’ is a song that simply cannot be played only once, full of untameable longing and unbridled, danceable fun. This year, HighSchool conquered End of the Road, All Points East and The Great Escape, but by the time next year’s festival summer comes around, ‘Only A Dream’ will likely feel like a festival anthem capable of taking them on to even bigger stages.
Also Read: Melbourne’s HighSchool – A Masterwork of Melancholic Pop and Post-Punk Grit
Photo by Aurora Wintz
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