Kansas City-based indie rockers Hembree’s second album was released in February, and finds the quintet pushing their established sound—first glimpsed on 2019’s excellent debut House on Fire—to new, colorful zeniths. Possessing a funky looseness and hip-shaking approach that perfectly pairs with Isaac Flynn’s emotionally kaleidoscopic lyrics, It’s a Dream! is a record about getting freaky even while you’re freaking out.
Shot at the scenic Joshua Tree National Park in California, the outfit has released an official video for their track “House On A Hill,” available on YouTube and to view below.
The album is a beyond relatable sentiment couched in music that burrows its way into your mind and stays there. Since Hembree released their first album House on Fire back in 2019, they hit the road and came off a stretch of touring ready to channel that energy into their next artistic statement. Before the pandemic, work on what would become It’s a Dream! was halfway done, and when the world shut down, it gave the band an opportunity to look inwards and refine their own sonic approaches while embracing a newfound maturity. Once the band was able to get together safely again, the quintet holed up in Burbank while enlisting co-producer e.hillman and engineers Chris Kaysch and Jasmine Chen to complete work on It’s a Dream!
Ironically, the album represents new levels of sonic immersion for Hembree as an artistic entity—practically a window into their creative minds, really, as they explore and incorporate new textures into their rapidly-expanding worldview. “This album is a fully-realized vision for the band,” Flynn explains before offering his own vision of the band’s future: “I want this record to lift people up, and for the music to be a positive experience in their own lives.”
