Shadow Animal - Dreams We Build (2025) Hi-Res

Shadow Animal has a new album Dreams We Build that’s experimental spoken word poetry / ska /authentic songs that are profound observations served with acoustic and electric guitar and percussion. Most of the time Americana music covers twangy sad songs with quality lyrics, and it’s not often that would typically include spoken word poetry style music. But every once in awhile, the lyrical depth and the performance presents itself as a necessary and deeply purging listen, which is the case to a major degree here in Dreams We Build.

The poetry of these songs is a cathartic joy to take in and let it release the tension you hold. On the opening track “Follow Your Dreams,” the electric guitar creates an introspective vibe and then the vocals speak: “It’s not that your dreams died / No They decayed slowly from inside / Like rocks hit by waves dreams crumble to sand / From the relentless pounding as you made your stand.” Speaking truth about the crash that comes and keeps hitting the shore again and again in adulthood.

“Trophy Room” continues the vibe with a dark musical arrangement as it delves into harsh awakenings that hit in your early 20s but continue on and on: “The scars on my knees from skating with friends / The lines on her face from her ski goggle tans / The gray in his hair since his kids arrived / The wisdom we gain when we fail but still try / Life doesn’t always go how we chose / We all get cut and scraped and bruised / But sometimes these scars lead to beautiful things / Which change our lives in ways unseen / We wear these scars like a trophy room.”

“Carry Me” is a more driving rock song delivering the message and plea: “Nothing is the same / Seasons bring, bring change / so carry me away from here.” “Hope and a Plan” calms things down and places us back at the starting gate with acoustic guitar and the profoundly insightful lines: “When nothing else was possible we were content to dream / There was no chance of disappointment because our dreams were so far out of reach / When we first dreamed
there was no sacrifice, no loss, no failure, just hope and a plan.”

Later in the album is the more vocally spoken performance style in “Bounce”: “I write lyrics but its hard to cope with both the superstar visions and my lack of hope. / I didn’t come from a broken home, Just a middle class kid with a passion for rhythm. And I still get nervous when I take the stage, grab the mic and beat begins to play.” The “bounce” element of this song is unforgettable.