Kelley Stoltz

When Kelley Stoltz started making his lush, Brian Wilson-esque bedroom recordings the idea of laying down a record in your home was still a novelty, done for practical financial reasons rather than by choice. Fast-forward a decade and thanks to cheap digital recording equipment, bedroom albums are the new doorway to authenticity. So, what's a long-time purveyor to do? Stoltz has slowly slipped into the realm of studio musician with his last few releases, no doubt the result of a larger recording budget courtesy of Sub Pop. But rather than finding overproduced bombast, Stoltz has retained the intimacy of the bedroom and given it a hi-fi makeover. To Dreamers continues this trend, as Stoltz filters British Invasion influences like the Stones ("Rock & Roll with Me") and the Kinks ("Pinecone") through his post-punk aesthetic. The danger is that it's often too easy to fall into the tropes of the genre or band you're borrowing from, and what was intended as an influence becomes mimicry. While Stoltz isn't completely immune, To Dreamers is a beautiful, intimate take on an overly familiar period in rock.