Dream Boy take down sexism in fierce new single ‘Purple’
There’s no doubt that we are in the middle of a shoegaze revival.
It’s also pretty well known that a lot of the heavy lifting in the genre is being done in Ireland: take NewDad, for example, whose latest album earned Far Out‘s coveted Album of the Week crown. But hot on their heels are newcomers Dream Boy with their own angsty take on the sometimes-stagnant genre.
Their debut EP, Drowning in Blue, saw the Dublin-based, female-led quartet prowl and prance across four lush, melancholic tracks to conjure a chilling, addictive dreamscape.
Previously, Far Out noted that Dream Boy expertly blends “dream pop into their distorted mix, conjuring both the cinematic and the breathlessly personal.” On ‘Purple’, they teeter into the latter half of this equation and kick this up a notch, mixing a new emotion into their killer simulation: Rage.
In the intricate verses, lead singer Allie Ryan explores the pent-up anger that comes hand-in-hand with the demands of the unfair industry: “Prickling punctures my skin / Simmering within / Ignorance to resentment”. In contrast, the chorus, like a short punch to the gut or the flippant flick of a wrist, consists of the singular confession, “You make me sick.”
Hidden behind this is added commentary on the over-sexualisation of women in the industry. In gaspy breaths, the group doesn’t just toe the line between rage and intimacy—they create it.
The message behind the music is just as powerful as the sub-three-minute track. Ryan said it better than I ever could: “I hope people hear this song and begin to question how they might be contributing to the problem, but more importantly, I hope it makes other women feel heard and understood.”
If the breathless hop-skip and the fiery, pummelling bass aren’t enough, Dream Boy expertly mixes shocking statistics from Irish radio play in 2023 in the final moments of the song. For example: “In 2023, there were 2 Irish women in the top 100 songs played in this country. Only one of them was alive.”
Keep going down this road, and Dream Boy will soon have a good chance of changing that.
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