Haley Bonar’s forthcoming Impossible Dream (out Aug. 5 on Gndwire Records/Thirty Tigers), has all the potential to fly under your radar. But if you’re smart, you won’t let it.
Bonar’s sleepy, mumblecore singing style and ’90s-style grungy garage guitars make her a badass lady to keep an eye on. And though she’s been making music for over a decade, Impossible Dream is an excellent entry point, particularly for fans of bands led by a strong female voice like Beverly, Mazzy Star, and Garbage.
Born in Canada, raised in South Dakota’s Black Hills and Badlands, and currently living in Minnesota, Bonar creates a sound that is moody and atmospheric, like a dark, tangled wilderness. There’s also an airy spirituality to her music, into which she taps with her angelic, sometimes ghostly vocals. Impossible Dream feels very much influenced by her environment: an array of lo-fi guitars and subtle synth blend together to give her songs a trance-like quality that is both hypnotic and beautiful.
The stories Bonar tells on Impossible Dream can be heavy and dark, but each song is its own kind of earworm. “Hometown” is driving with an addictively sweet melody, even though it’s steeped in angst, regret, and looking back. “I Can Change” is a heavenly, haunting lullaby with an almost tribal drum beat, in which Bonar sings about striving to become an ideal, despite herself. “Your Mom is Right” is a wild, uninhibited punk rock stunner about having nowhere to turn. “Skynz” is an intriguing ;80s throwback, and “Stupid Face” offers some of the album’s most dramatic instrumentals.
These songs shimmer like pop gems, but aren’t afraid of the scuffed, dirty knees that come with rocking out. Bonar doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truth-telling; she exposes her veins in the name of rock and roll.