Joe Waine’s Fat Dreams of Italy blooms out of hallucinatory waltzes in picturesque villages, medieval gardens, & Italian coastlines. Feverish fantasies — fleeting disappearances into sweaty iridescence — ripen to bursting, spill over the album, & suspend the record in ecstatic beauty. Exhausting opulence & restless grandeur have illuminated his latest release, introducing Waine at his most lucid yet. A somnambulant delicacy, Fat Dreams lauds the resonant gloss of past & present generations: gyred Wurlitzers, thrummy harpsichords, & foamy Mellotrons; the pluck of 1960’s Martin nylon-warming drowsy lap steel; Vintage Craviotto drums — exuberantly woody & tenderly honest; & swollen vocal harmonies. Every track thrives on hazy splendor; each minute of song fearing & rejoicing in its inevitable end. Despite its languor, Fat Dreams is not music for idling to. Interrogating leitmotifs like male empathy, body image, & past lives, Waine delves deep within to discover findings both individual & universal. A sonetto for our collective consciousness, Waine channels these unearthly visions to investigate the weights we carry — whether conscious or unconscious. Invigorated by the strange-yet-sensical patchwork logic only experienced in dreams, Joe Waine’s Fat Dreams of Italy is an indulgent & delicate feast for the emotions, as well as an affable reminder of the true timelessness of our love for one another.