Will Joseph Cook - Sweet Dreamer

Rating:

Bursting with energy and charm.

'Album' of 'the Week'

It seems silly to say that the pure joy of music can sometimes be under threat? It’s easy to get snowed under by “critically acclaimed” darlings or the latest trendy act, but what music is really there for is bonafide smiles and dazzling escapes, and there might not be anyone better at that than Will Joseph Cook. Radiating with a pristine ease in pop of the highest order, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is the culmination of a journey that began in bedrooms and is now destined to play the biggest stages. And that’s just a taster of the pot of gold Will’s been cooking up.

Throwing away any shackles of restraint, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is a record that places life under a microscope, and glistens it with shimmering hooks galore. Laid across beats and backdrops that vary between orchestral havens (‘Habit’, ‘Light Of The Day’), golden nuggets of bouncy licks (‘Girls Like Me’, ‘For Thursday’) and an insatiable thirst for the next glorious rise of the sun - Will doesn’t just make a statement but lays out a go-to guide for how pop can deliver in 2017. Taking influences from 00s indie and pushing it through a sound system of tropical flourishes, his peerless knack is best demonstrated on the confident strut of ‘Treat Me Like A Lover’, or the hands-in-the-air bliss of ‘Take Me Dancing’. Actually, it’s there at every kick - never sounding dry or tired out, but bursting with energy and charm.

There’s many records this year that’ll try to command the confidence that ‘Sweet Dreamer’ spills out in the bucket-loads - but most won’t get close. Like flicking through the record collection of an entire generation and popping it out in a minty-fresh package, it’s a record that tantalises throughout. Will Joseph Cook has laid out his cutlery at the table, and with ‘Sweet Dreamer’ he’s bringing the feast. Jamie Muir