Album Review: Dreamland

Many musicians talk of writing to cope with their feelings, but Julia Belle is one of the most truly vulnerable artists you may ever have the pleasure of discovering. Currently working with Toby Lloyd of Tiny Triumph Recordings in Wellington, her debut EP Dreamland is an absolutely gut-wrenching journey through her psyche, inherently relatable in its truthfulness but also intensely personal to a degree most artists can never reach.

In contrast to Julia Belle’s earlier singles which opted for a lighter, late-night synth pop sound, like 2021’s ‘No Way I Can Sleep’, Dreamland is a proudly folksy collection all about the power of one girl and her guitar. At its core, it tells a story of a woman desperate to escape. Belle desires a fantasy land, another country or even another identity where her problems will not follow her, although in reality, she knows they will go wherever she does.

Julia Belle’s unreal voice is instantly commanding from the first lines of I Dream, where she begs to travel the world amidst a blushing soundscape of rich Americana guitars and delicate backing harmonies. It’s dynamic and vast, building to a belty finale that then ends abruptly and disintegrates as if the listener is waking from that dream too. If Julia’s prayers for change get no answer, neither will we.

Early single Lucy is a melodic masterpiece, sitting in Belle’s falsetto range and climbing to airy highs that give the lyrics a surreal feeling. It’s the most purposefully vague song on Dreamland, up for interpretation as a number about sapphic longing, or an ode to intimate friendship, or a hope to  be reborn as someone totally new. Lucy is the manic pixie dream girl trope through the female gaze rather than the male, dissected with the most delicate touch thanks to the ethereal production. Interestingly if we do see Lucy as a fictional, idealised version of Julia herself, later on the more interlude-esque Red Sea, the song’s focus on Belle’s vocal alone portrays her like a siren lulling a sailor to his death, showing she too can transform into a larger-than-life feminine being when it’s called for.

The creaking country guitars on To Be Saved introduce one of the EP’s more upbeat numbers. Belle often slyly notes her music is too sad to get crowds pumping, but this song could be an exception. It’s characterised by foot-tapping folk rhythms and a bittersweet, catchy chorus. “Time will give you bruises if you just stick around to found out”, Julia’s voice shudders, jumping from smoky lows to breathy highs as she again desires physical escape from unavoidable problems of her past. It’s painfully earnest, but the spirited nature of the songwriting makes it digestible, a song that will make you dance despite its ultimately tragic message.

Rockstar is Dreamland‘s standout song, a tongue-in-cheek tune sarcastically calling out a man who dismisses Julia’s poppier work and music taste because he believes rock is the only legitimate genre. This song is laidback but whipsmart, expertly weaving together heavy themes of sexism, toxic relationships and the pitfalls of music criticisms into one winking track with an undeniably catchy hook. Sitting amongst the other six songs, Rockstar shines all the more because this EP displays exactly why Julia’s stripped-down sonic style is the perfect fit to make her emotional punches hit so hard.

Homesick is another highlight. Belle’s dark admission of longing to return to “a place that does not exist” grows into a rushing wall of sound, as she lets loose on some of her rarer more belted vocals, before collapsing back into the reality that there is nowhere to go. It’s weighty, but it’s that cold truth that makes the songwriting so effective.

But it’s the breathtaking final track Let Go that will, ironically, grip you the most intensely, and make Dreamland much harder to move on from than how we now normally chew music up from our algorithms and spit it out. This song speeds through Julia’s troubled adulthood with a remarkable honesty, disrupting the overall project’s hazy fantasy narrative with a serious dose of the real world. Infringement notices, suicides, psychosis and every medication under the sun litter the lyrics. “If you’re over me, I’m over me more”, Belle sighs, but she concludes she must let go of control to find that dreamland she seeks. It cannot be summarised well in a review, because it deserves your total attention and appreciation. It is, simply put, genuinely profound.

Not only is each song on Dreamland beautifully produced and written, but they all shimmer through Julia Belle’s truly unique perspective on the world. With plenty of talented modern folk artists saturating the market, it’s a tall order to stand out from the pack. But Julia Belle is like no other. Although it may require some emotional preparation, Dreamland could not be more worth the listen. It is one of our country’s strongest independent releases in years, and every artist using the marketing terminology of their “most personal work yet” should judge that by the work of Julia Belle, who is redefining what it means in music to be real.