Dear Reader – Idealistic Animals

Idealistic Animals, the second record from South Africa’s Dear Reader, sees now-sole member Cheri MacNeil relocated to Berlin from Johannesburg. The album explores transition in various senses: MacNeil’s loss of religion, and the decision of her erstwhile musical partner Darryl Torr to stay in South Africa, are refracted through the lyrical content. Discussions of spirituality necessitate a delicate lyrical touch, and MacNeil’s approach to the problem utilises a bewildering schematic approach. Thus, each song is named after a caps-locked animal, followed by an apparent non sequitur in brackets, e.g. GIRAFFE (What’s Wrong With Us).

Musically, a kind of Fleet Foxes-esque grandiose, polished folk sound backgrounds MacNeil’s assured, heartfelt vocals, and the arrangements are ambitious, rising from stripped-back beginnings to crescendos of richly-layered brass, guitar and piano. It’s a record that reaches for the dramatic idiosyncrasies of 80s Kate Bush, and although MacNeil’s lyrics lack Bush’s singular strangeness, hers is undoubtedly an original voice. [Sam Wiseman]