Pink House – sundream – Single Review‍
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Pink House album art Sundream single

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Pink House by sundream first caught my attention with their pitch. Billing this debut as a fusion of 90s-era emo, post-hardcore and shoegaze left me with no idea what to expect – and still this single exceeded my expectations.

As a writer, it's not often I lose myself entirely to the music and barely notice lyrics – yet, I didn't notice that this five-and-a-half minute track contained only fifteen lines until I was on their Bandcamp page looking to make my first-ever purchase on the platform. To me, this indicates the incredible musical development that takes place to fill in the lyrical gaps and still convey the emotion.

sundream opens the track with a delicious double-tracked guitar reminiscent of When The Sun Hits by Slowdive. Very quickly, though, they differentiate their sound with this unique twangy, almost sitar-like texture that enters with the drums. It almost sounds bowed, like a filtered electric violin.

In the opening verse, guitar ad-libs mingle with the vocals, sliding in and out to heighten the incredible atmosphere set up in the introduction. There's never really any empty space – and yet my chest feels hollow, a testament to how well the arrangement is done. I also appreciate the mixing here, to carve out a clear space for the vocals without dampening the guitars.

I'll admit that my first listen was in bed, right before falling asleep. Everything I've just described made me sit up – including the yell and (for lack of a better term) musical explosion at the end of the verse, which did shock me awake a little. After the first listen, though, I appreciate the gritty texture it lends the transition into the lush stereo wall of fuzzy guitars.

sundream full band Live Performance gigging photo

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That said, if I could offer one criticism on the production, it would be on the levels of the mixing/mastering process. I find myself adjusting the volume while listening to this track – turning up the intro, but also turning it down right at the yell. Personally, I'd turn the yell down just a little bit and even out the volumes across the track – but within each section, I find the instruments balanced well. Credit where it's due, though – according to Bandcamp credits, the band mixed and mastered the track themselves, which is no easy feat with simply so much going on.

sundream 2025 band pictures collage

The lyrics are wonderfully, nostalgically vague. Sometimes, there are two wolves within you – the writer in me has so many questions, but the musician in me just wants to lie in a field, shut my eyes and listen to this with the sun warming my face. (The pun was unintentional and caught in editing, but this song does feel like a dream in the sun.)

I think some songs deserve undivided attention to fully appreciate, and sundream has created one of them. I hurried to put my name down as the reviewer on this and sent it off to a friend (who loved it) as soon as I reviewed this submission; safe to say that the slight criticism above has not affected my enjoyment of this work in the least.

Pink House has been on loop ever since I began writing this article, and I expect it will be for at least a few days more.

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sundream is releasing an album later this year. I'll be keeping an eye out for it – and honestly, you should be too.

(Listen to Pink House, out now on https://open.spotify.com/album/02FRuKH1Dq53iQmoADIk4A and https://sundream.bandcamp.com/track/pink-house)

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