Formed in Bochum, Germany in 2016, Inadream initially created waves on the local scene through their lively shows, whilst their debut long player, No Songs For Lovers (released in 2019), garnered them some national exposure. Featuring ten red hot tracks, their long overdue sophomore album Strange Words looks set to up the ante further and send musical shockwaves radiating throughout the Continent (and beyond).

Opening with the swirling title-track, ‘Strange Words’ is a raging tempest that certainly has the wind in its sails. Fans of post-punk and indie rock will find a spiritual home here; there’s a definite early Cure feel going on, yet it’s a sound that’s expansive enough to please those with a penchant for goth and even heavy metal. Yet, sometimes it is best to dispense with genre divisions and enjoy it for what it is; a great rock album. With bright and shiny guitar lines intertwining and glistening like icicles in winter sun, there’s a reedy, retro feel to this album that’ll be familiar to anyone who came of age in the ‘80s, it’s the sound of urban desolation, de-industrialisation and deprivation and that’s precisely the aesthetic into which Inadream tap. Fortunately, such conditions are fertile ground for great music and Strange Words definitely pays homage to that era, but there’s also a contemporary edge to this Bochum quartet that places them right in the present; it’s a boundless energy and effervescence that gives the album a certain buoyancy.

With no two songs inhabiting the same sonic space, Strange Words is a real joy to listen to as the band shape shift over the course of 33 furious minutes; there’s the ska-infused ‘The Prayer’, the punky, pogo-inducing ‘Unleash The Beast’, whilst the band are kind enough to wear the influences of their sleeve on ‘Two Of A Kind’. On an album that’s full of peaks, a highpoint is reached when the band tackle Joy Division’s ‘Dead Souls’ and then win hands down. When a band cover a song, it shouldn’t be a mere facsimile (we have the original for that), rather a group should impart their own personality on proceedings, and that’s exactly what Inadream do. They strip down ‘Dead Souls’ to its constituent parts and then rebuild it in their own image and in a case of fortune favouring the brave, it really works. Yet, it is to the band’s credit that their own songs stand up against anything they cover (previously they covered The Eurythmics’ ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’) and it’s their own ‘In A Dream’ which brings the album to a cataclysmic conclusion.

An enjoyable album and one which holds the listener in a tight grip for half an hour and my only gripe with this album is that it is too darn short…but I’ll soon be hitting ‘play’ again.

• Strange Words is released via echozone on 18th October 2024.
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Track List:

1. Strange Words
2. The Prayer
3. Unleash The Beast
4. Two Of A Kind
5. Horns And Halos
6. Die Away
7. White Light
8. Dead Souls
9. Listen!
10. In A Dream