Stalled - Dust Inside a Dream

Pleasure Tapes

Chicago three-piece Stalled release their highly anticipated debut Dust Inside a Dream. Their Contentment EP would find itself inside my top 20 EP's of 2023. The dejected, despondent energy that the band brought to life through their music spoke to me on many levels. Dust Inside a Dream continues on in the heavy, sludged-foot feel in which the Stalled camp dwell so well. 

The longform album lends itself to Stalled. There's more time, as one would expect, for them to traverse the wave that they ride in-and-out and up-and-down on. It's a wave which can only be fully embraced through time. Dipping toes in just doesn't capture the weight of said waves. Chunky rhythms and dissonant riffs soundtrack life's groundhog grip; an unshakable melancholia which claws at the soul; chips away at the very thing which keeps you standing. The pain of another day creeps into view. Feet move forwards with no feeling; the mind holds on to no thoughts - no one's home. Auto-pilot, the worlds most inhabited state. Powerless to a festering freeze. Stuck at square one. Caught in the sludge, the slow quicksand. Scraping at the fucking walls. Feeling numb and coming undone. Losing it before your very own eyes. Split seams and un-live-with-able perspectives. A gurgling broth of conflicting interests. A tug-of-war of intent and purpose. Do I? Don't I? Obsolete and incomplete. Catatonically churning. Remorsefully lamenting. 

‘Nothing works anymore; nothing moves with purpose.’

Stalled have outdone themselves on their debut.