Last Updated on 10/10/2023

These are the top 10 best dream pop albums of all time. Learn about alternative rock’s most elusive offshoot, its history and the best albums to start delving into the genre with.

‘Dream Pop’ is an extremely evocative name for a genre, which may be what drew your interest to it in the first place and on from there to this article! It elicits an instinctive impression that is – to me at least – pretty appealing in its suggestion of sweet and sleepy sounds.

And to be fair, this description is broadly accurate. The atmospheres are dreamy, and the melodies are syrupy and often pretty catchy. 

What I didn’t expect from the genre was the multitude of hues that its soporific haze can take. The artists of the dream pop world have had little hesitation in dipping their brush into the paint of other distant genres before skillfully applying it to their own canvas. So, if you’re looking to enter the dream pop realm, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to find that gateway album – just look for the right genre crossover as an entry point (right here!)

While this is great for you, it does make it a little more difficult for the one writing this article. Knowing where dream pop starts and ends before compiling a ‘definitive’ list of the best albums in the genre could be helpful; the genre’s scope is like a cloud with a fuzzy boundary that goes on for kilometres, and you don’t know when you’re in it or out of it (“is this gothic rock?”, “this feels like it might be too techno” etc.). I struggled so much that I was reduced to trying to understand what ‘genre’ means in the first place.


Mildly-philosophical tangent: what even is ‘genre’?

I know some of you might be thinking “genre doesn’t matter; why are you wasting your time thinking about this?”. The answer is, firstly, that I love a good vaguely philosophical tangent, and secondly, that the concept of ‘genre’ is fascinating to me, primarily because its such a useful tool for discovering and understanding music and its associated sub-cultures.

Categorising music into genres can really help you understand how to appreciate art of different types when you sit down to listen to it – otherwise you might just miss the point. Like some visual art movements, different genres have unofficial ‘manifestos’ with what you could (slightly cynically) call ‘terms of enjoyment’. This is demonstrated in the contrast between how you might appreciate techno compared to conscious hip hop:

  • The beauty in techno, among other things, comes from how it builds tension, the atmosphere it might create, and the physical motion its rhythm may induce.
  • To appreciate conscious hip hop in full, you might focus instead on the rhythm and rhyme of the verse, the imagery, allusion and reference, and its expressive vocal performances.

Equally, knowing the arbitrary genre category that a piece of music fits into can be useful to identify what other music you might like, as genre tags can be descriptive of a music’s aesthetic qualities and mood. 

Now that you’re convinced that genre isn’t an entirely useless concept, back to my tangent…

Whilst there’s by no means consensus on an objective definition of ‘genre’, I had to start somewhere, and that was with Italian musicologist Franco Fabbri. He examines a particularly influential perspective in his A Theory of Musical Genres (linked here if you fancy a full read). The idea he initially proposes is that a musical genre is:

 ‘a set of musical events whose course is governed by a definite set of socially accepted rules’.

Where, by ‘a musical event’ he means ‘any type of activity performed around any type of event involving sound’. This is intentionally extremely broad, making his whole definition slightly controversial – Fabbri views this as ‘preferable to the opposite risk, that is, not recognizing as a genre something which is considered as such by millions of people’, which seems a fair point.

He explains that the ‘rules’ he refers to can range from technical ones (such as the instruments that can be used, or the scales allowed), to more sociological criteria such as who can be involved in the genre (generation, class, nationality) or what behaviour participants should display (are you making punk music if it doesn’t espouse an authentic punk lifestyle?).

What does this mean for dream pop though? It really means that the genre today is defined by the rules that its social community accepts as defining it (duh).

Fabbri is also intentionally broad with his conception of a social community. He implies that possible members of a musical community such as composer, player, manager, listener and critic all feed into this consensus view, but don’t necessarily need to be located in the same place and time as each other or the musical events themselves. So, the scope of the genre can constantly evolve as the agreements and interactions between these people in its community do, and as more people become involved in the genre over time. This makes it pretty challenging to work out what the consensus view is. And even if you could freeze time and survey everyone who has ever been involved in a genre’s community, who’s to say that they would end up agreeing with each other? So while this tangent does end in a bit of confusion, as all good philosophical tangents are supposed to, it does highlight the importance of people’s opinions in the definition of a genre. So…


Where did dream pop come from? And what do people think it is now?

It seems that the most tangible way to understand dream pop is to look at its historical scope in popular convention.

‘Dream pop’ was a label first used by late-80s band A.R. Kane to describe their own music, which was heavily influenced by the ‘feeling’ of Jazz-Rock Fusion (Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Weather Report in particular) and early Cocteau Twins. But, in common usage today the scope of the term ‘dream pop’ covers a much broader range of music than their style alone defines. In fact, it takes quite a bit of historical trawling to track the growing net of dream pop from that baptism.


A.R. Kane’s music was one of a number of influences on the sound of a particular early 90s, alternative rock scene in the British Isles – the music from which was interchangeably referred to as ‘dream pop’ (in line with A.R. Kane’s convention) or ‘shoegaze’ (coined due to the lengthy spans of time guitarists in these bands spent looking at their feet to activate the right effects pedals). Including now renowned acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, the scene shared A.R. Kane’s reverb heavy and often melancholy guitar-driven atmospherics. Other influences included 80s gothic rock, noise pop, post-punk, madchester and slowcore.

But, confusingly, not all the music that came from the bands popular around this time would be widely considered dream pop today. The different strands that were at that point tangled together unravelled and became more distinct from one another as time went on. Later in the 90s, heavier, more distorted rock within this sphere stuck to the ‘shoegaze’ label – music that no longer felt like it represented the dreamy nature that the ‘dream pop’ label wanted to describe (Swervedriver being an early example). Dream pop came to be used exclusively for the more gently ambient threads.

This parting was probably assisted by other artists that didn’t display shoegaze’s wall of guitar wash within their music at all (like the American group Mazzy Star, of “Fade into You” fame), but felt closer in style to dream pop than dream pop was to much late 90s’ grunge and metal-tinged shoegaze. This trend has continued into the modern day where artists like Beach House have embodied the dream pop label, while (until more recent years) staying far away from anything that might be considered shoegaze. As a result, music of that original shoegaze/dream pop scene has been divvied up between the two ‘genre’ tags.

It’s worth the disclaimer that this narrative still doesn’t provide an absolutely clear delineation, with big names like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine causing some of the most obvious challenges, as they could be categorised as either (although for the purposes of this article I’ve considered MBV to be more shoegaze than dream pop). There are to this day many artists that continue to bridge this particular interface between dream pop and shoegaze as MBV did.

The final relevant development in the genre-taxonomisation (real word) of dream pop was the retrospective categorisation of music from the 80s that existed long before the term ‘dream pop’ had even been coined as dream pop. There does appear to be good reason for this, as some of this music sounds more like its dream pop descendants (that it majorly influenced) than it does its contemporaries that it was initially lumped in with (goth rock, post punk, new wave, synth pop). Much of Cocteau Twins’ earlier music fits into this bracket, for example.

…hopefully that extensive narrative helps you understand the genre’s scope (and history) a bit better; in short, dream pop is essentially a musical aesthetic strongly linked to early 90s alternative rock in the UK, but by no means defined by it. In fact, the term has been highly flexible, maybe in part due to its descriptive nature: it’s ‘dreamy’.

So, in the list below, you’ll find the best albums that I’ve judged to sufficiently meet the aesthetic criteria of dream pop – or in less non-committal terms: the best ever dream pop albums. And as I mentioned before, in part due to the slaloming course it took in its development, the genre is so diverse in its crossovers into other musical realms that there’s truly an album here for everyone – please, dive in and find your new favourite album from a genre with a wealth of brilliant ones.


The List

10. On Fire, Galaxie 500

If you like: Slowcore

In the American tradition of slowcore influenced dream pop, this album is sad. The pained vocals and heart wrenching guitars rip through the subdued atmosphere to hurt you.

It’s gorgeous though, and expertly crafted. The track “Snowstorm” is a brilliant example of the band’s power to conjure lucid and impactful imagery; the bittersweet memory of a blizzard from your childhood years is elicited with its flurry of crispy percussion, angelical vocals float amongst the noise carrying the message that:

“The TV has gone out

and they got nothing else to think of,

and they’re letting me go home.”

9. Kuchu Camp, Fishmans

If you like: Dub

The moist and springy instrumentals have me feeling like a raindrop bouncing on the brolly of a cheery fellow caught in a mild spring shower.

It’s less hazy than dream pop often tends to be, but its melodiousness is no less hypnotic.

8. Nocturne, Wild Nothing

If you like: Jangle Pop

And now a perfect slice of the 80s from 2012; nostalgia sure is great when it sounds like you assembled a dream team of “Just Like Heaven” era The Cure with Johnny Marr on guitar, Bernard Sumner of New Order deputising on vocals, and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins on production.

The indie bops here were just made to soundtrack a hazy summer evening, sitting in a field with your mates and cold beverage of your choice. It’s a dream pop must-listen.

7. “i”, A.R. Kane

If you like: Alternative Dance

While A.R. Kane’s debut album Sixty Nine has the sound that the term “dream pop” was coined for and is well worth a listen for that alone, their follow-up is maybe even better.

Ever creative, the duo pair their spaced-out guitar pop with… pretty much everything. There is a clear through-thread with its sticky dance rhythms, and some hooks that would make primal scream proud, but this is pretty evenly obscured by the assorted splashes of noise, classical, punk (etc. etc.). It is a unique and fascinating album.

6. Tender Buttons, Broadcast

If you like: Indietronica

This entry in the list stands apart in its highly electronic nature. The duo are supported by a host of synths and drum machines that create a glitchy, psychedelic experience for the listener. The almost saccharine vocals filter beautifully through the granulated hiss of the other instrumentation, cryptic lyrics washing over you.

It’s dreamy in an almost dissociative way, which I mean in the most positive sense given its spot on the list.

5. Here Comes Everybody, The Wake

If you like: New Wave

This is an album that’s really understated about what it offers. Like most dream pop the vocals form part of the soundscape rather than sitting front and centre, but it isn’t as overtly psychedelic as other albums in the genre. This is maybe because it was released long before most albums in the style, in the middle of the new wave boom: 1985. But again, unlike other New Wave music it doesn’t have the same immediate punch in the percussion that typically makes the genre’s songs so driving. Instead, its tasteful aesthetics take longer to soak in as the song structures roll along patiently. Light with melancholy, it feels made for an autumnal stroll.

4. Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, Grouper

If you like: Ambient Folk

This powerful LP really does sound like a dream, but definitely not in the usual sense of the phrase ‘like a dream’; there’s no hazy tranquillity or rose-tinted idealism. It instead captures the often-confusing reality of dreaming, events and emotions passing you by with meaning or interpretation obscured. The lyrics in the chorus of “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” embody this well in verse:

“On dreams I’m moving through heavy water.

The love is enormous, it’s lifting me up.

I’d rather be sleeping.

I’d rather fall into tidal waves,

right where the deepest currents fall.”

Liz Harris is talking about the intimidating experience of falling in love – but the way the listener experiences this is through the physically overwhelming sensation of being washed by the powerful tides of the sea, rather than through explicit explanation: a truly dreamlike experience. The ambience that the earthy acoustic guitars sketch around the vocals enhance the effect, embodying the dissonant calm of dream state existence.

3. You Will Never Know Why, Sweet Trip

If you like: Indie Pop

Bright and crisp like morning rays on an unblemished beach, or – as was seasonally relevant when I first listened to it – deep, fresh snow; the world this music creates is invigorating.

Listening to these dreamy indie tunes is an almost cleansing experience. The direct lyrics draw you out into a reflective state before the glitchy, electronic instrumentals elate you, leaving you at peace with whatever is on your mind.

2. Dryfruit, sugar plant

If you like: Downtempo

At the turn of the millennium, the Japanese duo sugar plant had already seen significant success. They’d returned from a 40-city tour of the US in support of their (also excellent) 1997 album after after hours and opened for household indie names such as Yo La Tengo and Silver Apples at Japanese concert dates. The best was yet to come though.

Only a month into 2000 they released their career highlight, the LP Dryfruit. Heavily influenced by their love of 90s electronic music, this dream pop record is unique in the genre’s canon.

The band uses the slow builds and extended release characteristic of techno, with dreamy atmospherics and laid back vocals, to induce a blissful calm (as opposed to sending you into a hypnotic nodding-frenzy like techno might). Each song’s tension builds like the increasing heat of summer sun on your skin, before a cool breeze ripples through, summoning pleasant chills in its crescendo.

Opening track “A Rain Discretion” is a particular highlight with exquisitely delicate vocal melodies. They feel like they come through almost too slowly to begin with, but all that they’re doing is adjusting you to the languid pace of life that their humid soundscapes warrant. All it takes is a little acclimatisation and everything sounds just perfect.

1. Heaven or Las Vegas, Cocteau Twins

If you like: Dream Pop

When I started writing this list I really didn’t want to be predictable with my number one pick. After listening to this album back again (for the 100th time probably), I kind of had to concede that there was no way I could top this list with a more contrarian take. This is the best dream pop album I’ve ever heard, and if you haven’t listened, do soon.

Before this was released, Scottish band Cocteau Twins had spent nearly a decade as the darlings of the UK alternative music scene on the now-renowned label 4AD Records. Their sound began in a more post-punk and gothic rock influenced space before they leant heavily into their ethereal tendencies, becoming the face of what would later be termed dream pop.

As the 80s turned to the 90s, they reached their zenith on their classic record Heaven and Las Vegas.

It’s the auditory equivalent of huddling around a fire on a chilly evening, taking comfort in the warmth and staring into the flames that curl and groove and flick otherworldly shapes. The language they speak is foreign, but lulled; you free your mind to wander through the fire, interpreting messages of wonder in its infernal code. Washed in a haze of beauty, you’re free to decompress completely.

While this analogy might give you some indication of the record’s ambience I still don’t think it sufficiently represents the heart-rending loveliness of Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals and melodies. I do know now that she is singing in English (in a strong Scottish accent albeit), but this in no way diminishes the effect that she is an enchantress pouring incantations over me in a fantastical, romantic language – such is the power of this record. 

And it contains some of the very best songs in the genre, the title track, “Iceblink Luck” and “Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires” being particularly magical highlights. Even if you don’t listen to the whole album, give one of these a spin – please.

And if all that wasn’t enough, below are the other dream pop albums that came closest to making the list, and are also well, well worth your time:

  • Beach House’s Teen Dream, which displays a serene, modern take on dream pop
  • Eccsame the Photon Band by Lily’s, which provides a great but noiser and shoegazier dream pop experience
  • Fuzao by Faye Wong, which blends Cantopop conventions into gorgeous Cocteau Twins inspired atmospheres
  • Black Metal by Dean Blunt, whose comatose delivery and contemporary production techniques make this hypnagogic album a truly unique listen
  • And finally, Slowdive’s Self Titled, which is a really good example of a classic dream pop sound, tinged with shoegaze and updated to appeal to a modern indie audience (it really rings of the XX and Cigarette’s After Sex, to me at least.)