A dream is a wish your heart makes

By Henry Lipput

Dreamers On The Run, the new album by BMX Bandits (Tapete Records), with its wonderful arrangements of instruments and both backing and choral voices, is, in many ways, the band’s Pet Sounds. (Need convincing? Check out the stereo mix of Pet Sounds created for the Pet Sounds Sessions box set in 1997.) “I am dreaming all the time/Not just when I’m asleep” sings lead Bandit Duglas T Stewart on the opening track and title song. Dreamers On The Run is full of tales of dreams achieved, hoped for, and sometimes dashed.

In my review of “Setting Sun,” the first single from the album, I referred to it as “jaunty pop.” Both it and the next song on Dreamers On The Run, “Time To Get Away,” are about dream vacations, whether real or imagined, and contain this type of uplifting vibe.  On initial listen so does “Hop Skip Jump (For You Love” with its Bo Didley riff.  But sometimes in a relationship, no matter how hard one tries, you don’t make the grade. “My best was never good enough/I go so far to win your love” – so “I’m sick and tired of running after you.” 

On the segue that connects “Time To Get Away” and “What He Set Out To Be” we hear the tide that has washed away the dreams of the man in this song. “He thought too much of himself/And not enough of she/He can’t replace her smiles/Not if he walked a million miles.” Both musically and lyrically it can remind you of a Ray Davies song from mid-period Kinks, as this sad and lonely man may be the figure watching lovers crossing Waterloo Bridge each evening to meet.

With “My Name Is Duglas (Don’t Listen To What They Say)” one is also reminded of The Kinks, this time from their Schoolboys in Disgrace album. The voices that introduce “Jack The Idiot Dunce” have the same dismissive tone of people who have no regard for others who are different. The BMX Bandits track gives both Duglas and Jack a chance to respond to the haters.

More life-affirming jaunty pop from BMX Bandits

By Henry Lipput

It seems like right now, with everything happening in the world, it’s more important than ever to have music that just makes us feel better when we hear it.

Well, Duglas T Stewart, and the family of musicians that make up BMX Bandits, have come to the rescue with just what we need. These kings of jaunty pop have returned with “Setting Sun” (Tapete Records) the first taster for an album to be released next year.

And it’s also perfect time for this song for other reasons. As we end the year and it’s cold and gray the thing you need and want the most is some time in the sun. And “Setting Sun” sets the scene for that as well. So, pull up the beach chair in the garage and pour a pina colada and turn up the volume.