In less than a ten-year span, Subsonic Eye have established a deep catalog across jangle- and indie-pop spectra. On their 2023 album All Around You, the Singaporean five-piece refined their signature snappy hooks with a renewed appreciation for the natural world’s entanglement with their urban milieu. Ever enraptured by nature and their surroundings, Subsonic Eye have dedicated much of their music to celebrations of their environment. Their fifth album, Singapore Dreaming, centers their hometown through a more focused lens. Where All Around You comprised a space to sit with the complex feelings inspired by the intense world we inhabit, Singapore Dreaming is that intense world itself — Subsonic Eye’s interpretation of their high energy urban context refracted through straight-to-the-point, poppy, ergonomic songs tinged with tension that could explode at a moment’s notice. Despite the newly honed vision, Singapore Dreaming still has all of Subsonic Eye’s signature elements: spellbinding walls of tone, hooky riffs, zippy rhythms, and punches in the perfect place — all led by singer Nur Wahidah’s dreamlike voice, whose vaporous and velvety character always makes the layers whole. Singapore Dreaming’s lead single “Aku Cemas” picks apart feelings of anxious inadequacy inspired by our capitalist setting before balancing the scale with a reverent climax in which Wahidah proclaims “come get a hold of yourself / the world’s not ending / you’re not dying.” On album closer “Blue Mountains,” Subsonic Eye offer a reprieve from capitalist dread with a breath of fresh air inspired by a visit to the Australian mountain range. Of her experience, Wahidah writes, “when I’m out in nature, I’m in awe, I’m speechless, I’m humbled — I’m a student in the most beautiful classroom that has ever existed.” This casual wisdom permeates the entirety of Singapore Dreaming, which takes its title from the movie of the same name. Overlapping themes of consumerist abandon and suffocating work culture tie the two together, both works a critique of the disregard for the people around us and our blurry separations between work and life. But Subsonic Eye refuse to succumb to the pressures and chaos, instead choosing to ground themselves in their culture and community.
