It was the tail end of 2019: Kansas City natives Hembree had just come off the road after touring in support of their full-length debut House on Fire and had already begun work on their next LP. Then, of course, the pandemic happened, and even though what started as two weeks would quickly become two years, the indie rock five-piece took it all in stride, using it as an opportunity to up the stakes. Now that the world is finally being graced with the ensuing It’s a Dream!, the nearly three year wait suddenly feels incredibly worthwhile.

Not unlike House on Fire before it, the months-long lead-up to It’s a Dream! resulted in several singles from the album being released ahead of (some well ahead of) its February 4th street date. However, where many of the 2019 debut’s highlights were unveiled early as singles, leaving few standouts left unheard by release day, that is simply not the case this time around. In fact, many of the strongest moments from It’s a Dream! are dispersed evenly throughout as previously-unreleased deep cuts.

Take, for instance, the slow-burning, trance-inducing “I’ll Be On Time” that feels like a distant relative to Tame Impala. Or consider cuts like the dreamy, ethereal interlude “Luna” and the metallic, synth-heavy clang of “It’s Real.” Of course, I would be remiss if I left out album highlight “I Don’t Believe You,” which in some ways feels like a “Culture” 2.0. The driving, pulsing electro-rocker boasts this infectious half-time/double-time feel throughout, with frontman Isaac Flynn channeling his inner David Byrne, before everyone totally cuts loose on this crazed sax-centric cacophony a la Radiohead’s “The National Anthem” to end the song. Needless to say, singles like the title track and “Operators” are far from the only standouts on It’s a Dream!

Sometimes bright (“It’s a Dream!” and “Luna”) and sometimes bouncy (“Operators” and “It’s Real”), but never a bore, this new Hembree album easily topples its predecessor. What I find most fascinating about it though is the recurring theme throughout. For a record with a title like It’s a Dream!, one would expect the occasional reference to dreaming, but Flynn and crew do more than just reference it occasionally, with numerous lyrics both explicit and implicit (“we’re living in a dream” on the chorus of the title track and “maybe this time we’ll open our eyes” to kick off “Operators”), in addition to several “dreamy” soundscapes – the aforementioned “Luna” and “I’ll Be On Time,” just to name a couple of examples. The irony is also not lost on me that the LP opens up on “Reach Out,” with a repetitive riff eerily reminiscent of an alarm clock.

There’s just something supremely special about Hembree’s sophomore studio album that sets it apart, not just from its 2019 counterpart but also from its many stylistically-similar peers as well. In describing the record, Flynn indicates how the band has grown up in this process and figured out who they want to be, and the result is truly a dream. If It’s a Dream! is Hembree finally coming into their own, I think the world is going to need a little bit more time in order to be ready to witness whatever is next from the Kansas City-based quintet.

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