Album review: Impossible Dream

The hunt for the perfect early adulthood soundtrack has come to an end with Haley Bonar’s seventh studio album Impossible Dream.

Bonar finds a way to deliver hard truths with beauty emphasized by her wistful voice, best described as a mix between Ingrid Michaelson and Lana Del Rey. This album combines fresh sounds with a deeply moving rhythm that serves only to enhance the listening experience.

The Manitoban-born Bonar says, “I’m more or less coming from a perspective of a fiction writer.” The 33-year-old songstress has yet to run out of stories to tell.

“Of course I’m drawing from my own life in some ways,” she says, “it’s more of a general takeaway from a million different things.”

Through her intelligent lyrics, Bonar becomes the voice of many people. “When I come back/I’ll be something to somebody/Hometown goes wherever you go,” sings Haley in the first track on the album, which is essential listening for any freshmen away from home for the first time.

Her songs approach issues such as sexuality, family struggles, and difficult relationships so brilliantly that this album could be perceived as a guide to adulthood.

Bonar’s echoing voice contrasts perfectly with the steadiness of the drums in many of her songs, especially in one of her lyrical favourites, “Jealous Girls.” With the breadth of possibility and creativity in all of the tracks, one cannot help but wonder where the impossibility of the dream is.

“It’s not bitter, and it’s not saying that your dream is impossible,” says Bonar. “It’s saying both. It may be impossible – but that feeling of hoping for something is just as amazing and beautiful as actually achieving that.”

The album is the perfect soundtrack on a walk along Spring Garden Road, an afternoon in Coburg Coffee, or a study session in the Killam. Haley Bonar captures the essence of what it is to grow into yourself, an important part of university life.

“Impossible Dream” officially dropped Aug. 5. Captivating, poetic, and imaginative, this album is a must for any indie music aficionado.