A duo made up of friends and prior collaborators
Ashe
and
FINNEAS
,
the Favors
give the Billboard 200-charting adult alternative soloists a chance to highlight good-old-fashioned melody and harmony, duet-style. A playful and affectionate album guided by a concept,
The Dream
concerns a couple who are left alone with their thoughts in the aftermath of a breakup that neither really wanted. The album was penned by the two of them, with
bandmates
Matthew Fildey
David Marinelli
, who also play on the record, co-writing five of its dozen tracks. Taking influence from popular music of the 1960s and '70s, including the Laurel Canyon folk-rock scene, they deliberately limited instrumentation to electric piano, guitar, bass, and drums and recorded their vocals live. While songs such as the promotional singles "The Hudson," "Times Square Jesus," and "The Little Mess You Made" may suggest an updated version of the singer/songwriter and pop-soul duets of the '70s, alongside touches of the harmonies of the vintage folk-rock influence, they sometimes land closer to classics of the vocal era, such as on the introductory "Restless Little Heart" or "Ordinary People," a song that just as well could have been a duet between
Doris Day
Frank Sinatra
. If anything, this adds to the romantic charm of a set of slanted-smiley love songs that ends with the disco entry "Home Sweet Home," a cross-country connection that celebrates the possibility of reunification ("I still adore ya/I didn't call just to say, 'Hello'"). Much of the singers' fan bases were on board with the album's bittersweetness and contrivances: it made it onto the Billboard 200 while charting in countries such as Australia, Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands as well. ~ Marcy Donelson