Orange County-based melodic skate punk outfit Chaser make a welcome return with their latest effort, Dreamers. We begin with Charlie Chaplin’s iconic speech from The Great Dictator, delivering the album’s overall message in the first fifteen seconds of ‘Fight For Our Lives’.
Dreamers is a powerful, if somewhat predictable pop-punk production, serving us with empowering, sympathetic lyrics and infectious choruses to motivate those of us at low points, and help us maintain the self-belief through the struggles of life, particularly in the age of a global pandemic.
It’s a warm album full of heart, backed by fast tempos and huge choruses that would probably go over really well in fully packed basement venues. Sadly, there’s a sense of repetition throughout the majority of the album, which means that by the midpoint, you have a pretty good sense of what to expect and this is where Dreamers wobbles ever so slightly. Despite the lack of diversity, it’s clear the band arrived in studio with a clear picture of what they wanted the album to be.
While Dreamers don’t necessarily tread new ground, it’s a proven formula for success, given their previous material. Long-time fans, and hopefully new, will undoubtedly find Dreamers appealing; an album that combines the honesty of Green Day with the manic energy of Counterpunch. The crown for track of the album would go to ‘2020’ and its titular single ‘Dreamers’.
