Dream Machine is the thirteenth album from Inertia and whilst initially I was pretty excited to check it out and although there’s a few good elements to it, the album as a whole is a little difficult to connect with. Indeed, by the album comes to a close, you can’t help but wonder if that is it – it never properly gets going.
The somewhat slow pace to the album as a whole doesn’t work in its favour and the repeating lines ultimately just wind up sounding a little bit grating, sounding simplistic rather than anything else and it’s disappointing because it’s clear Inertia can do better than this. It’s just a little bit wishy-washy and although the music doesn’t need over-the-top solos and complex instrumental approaches, a little more direction to it all would go a long way.
Penultimate track Pray definitely shows what the band is fully capable of. The synth line is catchy, with the in-your-face approach grabbing your attention and the vocals are colourful and emotive, adding a sparkle to the music, and although there’s a fair few repetitive elements to the song, this works in its favour and it gets stuck in your head because the delivery as a whole is more confident and empowered.
It feels like Inertia isn’t quite firing from all cylinders with Dream Machine, and it’s a shame. Hopefully they’ll be back bigger and better with album number fourteen.
5/10
