After Vance Joy’s sudden rise to success following his hit single ‘Riptide’, his new album ‘Dream Your Life Away’ has been highly anticipated by eager fans waiting for more of the Australian’s easy-listening folk music.

Vance Joy, formally known as James Keogh, first started releasing music with the debut of his EP in 2013 titled “God Loves You When You’re Dancing”. Keogh’s music is best described as organic, thoughtful, lonely and romantic. While most popular music right now usually has a very upbeat rhythm and sometimes thoughtless or filler lyrics, Keogh’s writing usually revolves around topics of love and loss, along with some social commentary and personal stories.

According to Clash Music, “His [Keogh’s] debut ‘Dream Your Life Away’ is blessed with just enough heartfelt honesty to spread the youthful nostalgia adeptly across any generational gaps.”

One of my personal favorite songs of the album, ‘Mess is Mine’, uses powerful lyrics, such as, “Do you like walking in the rain? When you think of love, do you think of pain?” to convey a narrative of him or someone else struggling to piece their life together after a life-changing event. Keogh is able to craft lyrics to tell a subtle story throughout the album, since many of the songs are written from a narrative perspective, some about himself and some about a separate person.

Rolling Stone Australia reports that “Vance Joy’s appeal lies not just in floppy hair, but in universal relatability – storytelling full of generalised tales about growing up, of love, lust and loss, motifs of ‘eyes’ and time’s passage all painted with a golden folky haze.”

Although Keogh receives much less credit than he deserves, many admit that the album tends to drone on with one mellow song after another. With his creative songwriting, Keogh’s music becomes much more blurred and blended together when the soft lyrics and slow melodies flow into one another. “Riptide” is one of the most popular songs for a reason, mostly because it’s one of the most recognizable songs with an ever-present ukulele instead of the usual guitar and a much more pop-like sound to it.

For people who enjoy folk music and good, meaningful lyrics, this is definitely the album for you. Along with that, if you also like putting on an album to use as background music, without listening to it very intently, this album would be very fitting.