Lazerhawk - Dreamrider

(Rossa Corsa 2017)

Lazerhawk is my first synthwave love, back when I first heard "Overdrive." Back when we did not even have the word synthwave! I have loved all his releases since then, especially Skull & Shark, which to me is near perfect. So I was just a little excited for his first new album in almost 4 years.



The opening track, "Neon Dawn," gives me chills every time I listen to it. It reminds me more of Visitors than Skull & Shark, as it is so dreamy and mysterious. There are some other excellent tracks I should note. "Feel the Rush Tonight," featuring Gunship on vocals, takes me back to the chillwave days. On "Somnus" is channeling M83, in the best possible way. Then there is "Hypnic," which is the purest outrun. These are all among the first 6 tracks on the album.

Unfortunately the back half of the album loses focus. Unlike Skull & Shark or Visitors, this is not top-to-bottom great. In fact, Dreamrider feels like an amazing EP with some filler attached to it. The filler is still pretty good, but it doesn't feel like Lazerhawk's A-list material. Dreamrider is still well worth your time, though. He is a special producer.

Score: 8.0