To See The Next Part Of The Dream (studio album) by 파란노을 [Parannoul]

From VictorVale 02/18/2022 18:12

Impressionante muralha de som!!

“To See The Next Part Of The Dream” is built on long moody shoegaze. The guitar work creates a solid soundscape. The vocals while distant produce a genuine feeling of dejection and longing. These two paired together give the album an identity of reflection. The atmosphere is sadly snapped by the albums over commitment to each song. Long after the tracks hit their climax, it will continue on in a musical rump state. Each times this happens, it becomes more difficult to appreciate the hard kicking drums or clever guitars.

I'm not a shoegaze person at all but this sounded pretty good. Analog Sentimentalism was a highlight for me. A bit of challenging listen if you don't know Korean, however the vocals are just an extra instrument the artist uses here. It's kind of cool that not much is known about the musician using the Parranoul alias except that they are making good dreamlike music in their bedroom. I hope we can hear more of it.

From mdbaxter 08/19/2021 18:37

Some good shoegaze type stuff. The obvious flaw is the artist's lack of quality vocals but the instrumentals make up for most of the lost ground. Hypnotic guitar drones and sick riffs on top of my man absolutely pounding the shit out of his drums (or maybe his keyboard; I can't tell) all come together to form something calming but invigorating.

From HoldenM 06/23/2021 20:09

It's about 10 or 20 minutes too long, but it's so beautiful, if a little ragged in the production, that it goes down pretty easily.

From seb7 05/07/2021 18:20

Great indie/alt/dream rock album. Everything that I wanted Loveless to be that it wasn't

To See the Next Part of The Dream is a powerful and emotional album that captivated me from start to finish. Despite the language barrier, I could understand what Parannoul was feeling throughout the album. As with many shoegaze albums, the vocals are mixed to be distant, almost dreamlike, so not understanding Korean adds another layer of mystery to it all. There's pain, anger, and sadness in the vocals but also moments of quiet beauty. Additionally, the instrumentation is epic and densely layered. This is definitely an album I will need to listen to more but my first impression is that this is one of the better modern shoegaze albums. My favorite songs here are Beautiful World, White Ceiling, the title song, and Age of Fluctuation.

An impressive and obviously inspired piece of work by a single person. But the fact that it's entirely made up of virtual instruments (VST) makes it feel a bit colder each time you go back to it again. The music doesn't have the same affect (imo) like the first time hearing it, especially the drums & guitar washes (relistening to "Chicken" vs say relistening to its inspiration "Mayonnaise by Smashing Pumpkins" for example). And maybe for some thats okay but it could be a interesting idea to hear it rerecorded with real instruments and live musicians. Overall fine album and impressive that one can essentially make a whole album, that has obviously affected a lot of people, with simply a computer & vocals. But one has to wonder if this could be the future of A.I music? ... lol jk thats just hyperbole haha. Rock on Parannoul!!

Not for me. Amateurish Shoegaze.

From Mercury 03/18/2021 19:23

(Nostalgic and bittersweet album. Manages to take that 90s Shoegaze/Noise Pop influence and warp it to something very personal and moving. When the album rocks it really rocks and when the big emotional screamed crescendos hit they really hit..)

Overall, I saw the growing hype for this album and I meant to get to it before the hype got out of hand. Well, too late. This is one of the surprise hits of the year amongst music nerds. And I listened with that in the back of my mind. I was thinking I may be disappointed. I wasn't. At least, not much.

The guitars and especially the drums here are excellent. The drums have a clear and crunching compressed intensity that is cool. Makes the otherworldly Shoegaze waves of sound a bit more grounded and tangible, which I much prefer over a general sense of just walls of s=disorienting pretty sound and noise. The guitar sounds are similarly cool, drawing not only from ethereal waves of sound in MBV albums but also from more clear and structured riffs you may find in a Smashing Pumpkins or more direct post-punk album. It's a nice mix.

The vocals are clearly very emotional. On some of the songs a clear Emo influence comes over the tracks, especially on the cathartic climaxes where the vocals scream with intense sadness or anger or some other passion.

The songs are consistently beautiful and not super samey. The more catchy alternative rock songs, especially "Analog Sentimentalism", "Excuse", and "Chicken" all have an infectious and catchy power to them. They somehow made me feel bliss by how damn great the tunes were and also a deep sad nostalgia. Great tunes.

The Epic songs, of which there are 2 and arguably 3, (10 minutes, 9 and a half minutes and 7 minute jams are these ones) are cool and give the music time to build and breathe. The best of the big towering tracks is track 6 "Age of Fluctuation". It is also maybe the heaviest song here and very noisey. But it creates a really inviting world that explodes into a screaming emo crescendo.

There are a lot of highlights - the guitars and their sounds, the drums and the way they are recorded, the excellent vocals, the flow of the album is good, the nice little unexpected touches that Parannoul throw in when least expected etc etc. The only tracks that I maybe wasn't vibing with nearly as much on my first couple listens were track 8 "Extra Story" and maybe "Youth rebellion". But really those will probably grow on me. This is a really nice album.