Peel Dream Magazine - Pad

Released 7th October 2022.

With his third album as Peel Dream Magazine, Joseph Stevens beckons you toward a fabulist, zig-zagworld entirely of his own design. On Pad, he eschews the fuzzy glories of his indie pop past vibraphone trembles while chamber strings take center stage. The curtains lift to reveal banjo. Chimes.Farfisa. And as he lets out a moan atop the albums title track, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary performance. A conceptual work about losing oneself when all they have is themself, Pad gestures towards an exciting new future forStevens pop moniker by reimagining its own very existence.

The follow-up to 2020s breakthrough album Agitprop Alterna, Pad presents a major sonic evolution for the 34 year old songwriter, who moved to Los Angeles amid the cataclysm that sameyear. Seventies era drum machines and synthesizers remain here, but hes traded his buzzing offsetguitar for a nylon-string, opting for a gentle baroque po