Dream Wife - Dream Wife
Dream Wife is a way of life. Named after feminist ideology, not the 1953 rom-com, the Icelandic-British trio’s self-titled debut, on Lucky Number, is a force to be reckoned with.
If Riot Grrrl happened in 2018, it would sound like the raucous, vivacious, but purely coherent act that is Dream Wife. The album opens with already-released favourites, ‘Let’s Make Out’, ‘Somebody’, ‘Fire’, and debut EP lead track ‘Hey Heartbreaker’. The politically-charged tracks are unforgettable, particularly the anthemic choruses of ‘Somebody’ and ‘Hey Heartbreaker’. Vocalist Rakel Mjöll encapsulates the rage and fire of her fellow women in her quick lyrics, such as ‘Somebody’s “You were a cute girl standing backstage/it was bound to happen”, and “I am not your body/I am somebody”.
While the album perhaps loses something in its middle, reworked closer ‘F.U.U’ ensures the band won’t be forgotten. With samples from Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’, ‘F.U.U’ is iconic, turbulent, and indelible.
On the 11-track record, Dream Wife weave pretty yet barbed motifs throughout the album. Each song has a beginning, middle, and end, but in a way that makes it feel carefully written and produced, rather than formulaic.
You know that mid-noughties Barbie doll, where you could colour her hair pink and dress her in distressed denim? That’s Dream Wife. Dream Wife take femininity and upend it, while being gorgeously acerbic.
7/10.
