PS I Love You - Death Dreams

The inspiration for Ontario heavy pop duo PS I Love You’s second offering Death Dreams is, funnily enough, vocalist and guitarist Paul Saulnier’s nightmares based around his own mortality. Whilst on tour last year he began to experience reoccurring dreams that would shape the direction for the band’s next LP. A suitably dark premise to start from, then.

Thus, a dark, brooding, atmospheric instrumental would be the ideal introduction into Saulnier’s mind. ‘Death Dreams’ is a powerful and thoughtful piece, calm whilst angst-ridden, disjointed yet charming. Guitar musings ride over the waves of rattling cymbals and a yawning chasm of bass pedals. The music cuts out swiftly and abruptly, as if you had just awoken from a terrible dream, before launching into ‘Sentimental Dishes’. Powerful chord sequences and an exciting beat make up for some questionable, albeit memorable (and audible!), lyrics - “I don’t want to do these dishes/You don’t want to do these dishes/They don’t want to do these dishes” - before an electrifying, riveting solo blows away any cobwebs in your ears.

The songs just seem to get noisier and more and more overdriven following the early blood-pumpers, descending into some form of bizarre organised chaos. Screaming guitar riffs clash with angry distorted vocals and fight over drummer Benjamin Nelson’s rhythm storm. The harsh, jagged aggression of ‘Toronto’ contrasts its softer, anthemic predecessor ‘Don’t Go’, but this powerful statement seems to backfire as the music becomes a little overly-repetitive and, as a result, hard to follow. ‘Death Dreams II’, another instrumental, is a mess of indulgent guitar work when compared with its sibling, whilst in other tracks you can imagine that there might be some beautiful, dream-inspired lyrics floating just out of reach - giving the record an annoyingly frustrating edge (so let’s just pretend that there is).

But then, just as quickly as they fell wayward, Saulnier and Nelson suddenly recover the thrilling quality of the opening sequence with their closing three tracks. ‘Red Quarter’ is far more collected and mature than we have ever seen the duo, yet enormously exciting, whilst ‘Saskatoon’ is just outstanding. Masterful guitar playing creates an uplifting, evocative and versatile dream world for the listener and again the track comes to a swift finish – I’ve woken up again! LP closer ‘First Contact’ has a real DIY feel to begin with as computer hardware can be heard whirring away in the background of their tiny rehearsal space and recording studio, before picking up into a lively tune that seems to channel virtually every decade since the ‘60s.

Whilst Death Dreams seems at first to be merely briefly exciting and exhilarating, persistence is to be rewarded. There’s some fantastic music to be found within the depths of Paul Saulnier’s nightmares and, although the LP falls very flat in the middle, it’s another sturdy platform from which PS I Love You can launch riff-laden dystopian musings on the world.