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On Pink Dreams, Hamilton punk hero Sweet Dave O’Connor shows off a spellbinding side of his musical personality. With slow-burning grooves contrasting the unhinged intensity of his band TV Freaks, this collection of paranoid pop songs, gothic ballads, and spooky soul stompers will worm their way into listeners’ psyches. Inspired by the visions haunting him after dark, Sweet Dave has rendered his dreams and nightmares into the soundtrack for your next graveyard smash.

While primarily playing all instruments and recording on his lonesome, O’Connor once again recruited members of The Shallow Graves, the backing band from his last release, 2017’s Mental Jails. Drummers Dan Empringham and Nathan Burger provide Pink Dreams’ pulsing, shuffling, or stomping rhythms, while Dave Nardi unleashes a gale storm of sax on seven-minute blockbuster “The Real World.” Mixed by Kenny Meehan (Attack In Black, Daniel Romano, Single Mothers) and mastered by Australia’s Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddie Current Suppression Ring), these songs’ sparkling sound bring Sweet Dave’s knack for melody into sharp focus.

“Beautiful Nightmares” opens Pink Dreams with a mesmerizing onslaught of synth, drum fills, and echo-drenched vocals, before “Heart Is Cold” slinks into dark disco with the alien menace of David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). This freaky theatricality continues with the swooning slow-dance “Future Dirt” and melancholy lament “When The Night Comes” recalling the haunted baritone of Bauhaus’s Peter Murphy. The album ends on an electrifying note with “Wrong Thing” resurrecting the new wave croon of Fine Young Cannibals. Never has a tattooed love boy like Sweet Dave sounded so dreamy.

Pressing Information

300 copies on pink vinyl