Citay
Dream Get Together
(Dead Oceans)

Though Dream Get Back opens with the thrummed thrust of a Syd Barrett tribute (“Careful With That Hat”), Citay’s easy, loping approach is actually obscured more by the hazy clouds of a mellower, early-70s Floyd feel. The whole album is, indeed, like a dream, though it’s holistic and not as scattered as the album’s title might suggest. Their is is a swirling trip that gracefully slides down a double helix of harmonized guitars and fanciful lyrics, a musical reverie akin to lying awake but expectant on a comfy pillow. As with any dream, the vagaries start to blur together, confounding the listening experience, making you wonder if you haven’t already been in the middle of this same song before. This may be because the bedroom folk of a DADGAD-tuned acoustic is often the supple foundation of each track – themes have no choice but to double back on each other, ringing like celestial permutations. It’s an altogether pleasant, if unchallenging, reverie, though: Dream Get Together is saved by deceptively complex song structures and diverse instrumentation (great synths on “Hunter,” poignant sitar on the title track), as Citay sounds like notes of open roads and wide skies, reminiscent of past places both real and imagined.