Puma Blue reveals forthcoming full-length, Croak Dream

Originally written and recorded in a hotel room, the raw, visceral sound of "Desire" went on to inspire the entirety of Croak Dream’s sonic landscape. "I didn’t have microphones with me or anything,” shares Allen about the early creation of the track. "I ended up embracing the raw sound of my guitar recorded with my phone, no amplification. I meant to re-dub it later, but I actually fell in love with how visceral it sounded unplugged, and so I left it as it was. This approach snowballed into an appetite for these gritty and ugly sounds clashing with something more lucid and dream-like."

"Sometimes I feel like my music has been chronically shy and so with this song, it just felt time to be bold, let it all hang out, throw the paint around. A lot of recent songs have started this way, lonely and reaching for the guitar the way I did when I was a kid, a sort of old friend. Just using whatever limited tools within my reach. I taught myself guitar on an electric as a teenager and for years we didn’t have a guitar amp, so it felt kind of full circle for me," he continues.

Searching for a different form of expression, following the full-throated environs of Holy Waters, he channeled his energy into the tunes that were collected on this year’s antichamber as well as its companion release extchamber, which represented a full immersion into acoustic textures and haunting, ethereal vocals.

"A Croak Dream is a prophetic dream where you see a vision of how you die," shares Allen, "Half the songs on this record allude to how you might decide to live, act, if you somehow knew your awaiting fate. Being daring, romantic… Saying what you really mean."

“I've put a lot of work into letting go of expectations” Allen continues, while reflecting on how the album captures him in this current moment. “Making this record became like a deep release of breath as I got further away from some of those limitations. My imagination swelled with all this new fire, I fell in love with it all again. It became less a question of what is this? and more like, what else? How far can I push this thing?

Tracklist:

1. Desire
2. Mister Lost
3. Hold You
4. Croak Dream
5. Heaven Above, Hell Below
6. (Fool)
7. Hush
8. Jaded
9. Silently
10. Cocoons
11. Yearn Again