Guitar Dream

Although perhaps best known as lead guitarist for 4AD’s Merchandise, on his third solo LP, Guitar Dream, David Vassalotti’s abilities as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist are finally given an opportunity to shine, thanks in no small part to the production and engineering talents of co-conspirator and Merchandise frontman Carson Cox. A quasi-breakup album voiced through a protean pastiche of dejected characters, Guitar Dream finds Vassalotti at his most up-front and confessional. While 2015’s genre-spanning Broken Rope was interspersed with loops, samples and sound-collages, Guitar Dream features more straightforward songwriting reminiscent of Merchandise’s melancholic post-punk balladry, albeit with an added dose of gravitas. Fractured glam, keyboard trumpets and, yes, the occasional guitar solo prop up Vassalotti’s dynamic vocals, ghostified by blankets of delay and reverb.