Various Artists - Maybe I’m Dreaming *Pre-Order

Release Date Friday 1st August 2025
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day.

Maybe I’m Dreaming is the latest collection selected by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and Keith Abrahamsson (Founder and Head of A&R at Anthology Recordings), the mangled minds behind the beloved Follow the Sun, Sad About the Times, and …Still Sad compilations. The twenty tracks of Dreaming make a conscious, and unconscious, detour from its predecessors, sourced entirely from private press releases, spanning new decades and production modes within homespun folk, soft rock, and otherwise 70s and 80s FM radio adjacent music. The magic of Dreaming is the untold story of the artists behind these songs; those who missed the big time, but whose song craft and unrequited care hit the right notes, both high and low.

Where Follow the Sun and Sad About the Times introduced us to the fame chasing, ambition crashing crooners who missed their shot in the mainstream, Dreaming delves deeper into the isolated wilds — a private world where production quirks, late-night tape hiss, and one-man studio dreams were not necessarily a choice but the hand that was dealt. With the parameters set to "private press only,” Young and Abrahamsson follow a circuitous trail of invention and emotion, documenting a spirit that’s more homespun, sometimes lonelier, and often a little weirder. The guitars still strum, but the keyboards’ hum is more prevalent and precious; wistful harmonies brush up against lo-fi drum machines; a bittersweet fog lingering over even the brightest melodies.

As with their previous collaborations, Young and Abrahamsson weren’t interested in constructing a museum or drafting a historical survey. Dreaming is a sentimental mixtape, assembled late at night when the mind wanders and old memories blur with imagined futures, those within reach and those far too mysterious to ever encounter. Songs were unearthed in personal collections, deep YouTube burrows, dilapidated web archives, and the dim corners of Discogs, with many selections tied not only to intuition but to personal connection. Some tracks arrived via friends — Kelley Stoltz, a frequent guide for Young, tipped him off to both Peter Kraemer’s lost gem “Let the Light Slip” and Awakening’s revelatory closer — adding an unseen but deeply felt thread of camaraderie to the compilation.

The journey takes in a wide, strange sweep: The Watson Brothers Band's “Just Whistle” opens the collection with a sigh and a shrug, a song that feels like it’s been waiting for decades to be heard again. Jim Huxley’s “Tessa on a Magazine,” rediscovered after a long and winding search by Young, shimmers with a distinctly Australian melancholia. The heartbreak of Rick Penta's “My Story Changes” and Twice As Nice’s delicate “Thoughts of You” float easily alongside the more buoyant, radio-dream sheen of Barracuda’s “Baby I Love You” and MAK’s sunshine-dappled “That's Life.”

Widening the aperture to the late 70s and early 80s allows for a deeper exploration into evolving production techniques and musical technologies. The Squad’s “D.L.M.H.I.M.A.” and Christoph Spendel Group’s “Forever” crackle with the kind of bedroom synth warmth that could only come from the analog age, while the soulful, yearning undercurrent of Awakening’s “Gotta Do Somethin / Might As Well Cultivate” caps the collection with a call for action — or maybe just acceptance — in an accidental Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets parroting.

While Dreaming moves away from the "sad man with guitar" archetype that hovered over its predecessors, it remains tethered to a familiar emotional gravity — a balance of longing and lightness that defines this corner of the musical universe. Each track shuffles gently between resignation and hope, sadness and serenity, as if the artists themselves were chasing a dream just beyond reach, recording not for fame but for the simple act of getting it, that primal, creative itch, out into the world.

The result is a collection that feels both ephemeral and eternal. A flicker caught in amber. A transmission from the other side of the night, a place where the angels and demons mingle, sharing shots and lines with those that enter their parlor. Dreaming is an invitation to drift a little while longer, eyes half-closed, into that liminal space between memory and imagination. Maybe you're dreaming. Maybe you're awake. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Featuring the third eye opening artwork of Dang Wayne Olsen, the double LP set arrives on Anthology Recordings on August 1, 2025 in an outrageous double wide spine jacket with printed inners and a dream journal entry by Pacific Northwest artifactual authority Josh Lewellen. There’s nothing else for you to do but listen and dream away.

Tracklist

1. The Watson Brothers Band - “Just Whistle”

2. Jim Huxley - “Tessa on a Magazine”

3. Rick Penta - “My Story Changes”

4. MAK - “That's Life”

5. Palm Pizazz! - “Silent Letter”

6. Twice As Nice - “Thoughts of You”

7. Barracuda - “Baby I Love You”

8. Elderberry Jak - “Forrest on the Mountain”

9. Dennis - “Walk With Me”

10. Jim Ware - “Green Eyed Gypsy”

11. John Lyle - “Oh My Wind”

12. Peter Kraemer - “Let The Light Slip”

13. Brian Freel - “Nightrider”

14. Michael Moore - “Holland”

15. Clete Stallbaumer - “John's Song”

16. Ronnie White - “The Jump”

17. David Owens - “Take Off Your Armour”

18. The Squad - “D.L.M.H.I.M.A.”

19. Christoph Spendel Group - “Forever”

20. Awakening - “Gotta Do Somethin / Might As Well Cultivate”

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