More Than Just A Dream – Fitz and The Tantrums

Released: May 7, 2013

On May 7th, 2013, Fitz and the Tantrums released their second studio album More Than Just A Dream. This album followed their debut Pickin’ Up The Pieces, which came out three years prior in 2010. This album is very special to me because I used to listen to it over and over again on my iPod mini that summer at camp. Anyways.

Fitz and the Tantrums is an indie-pop band with five members, with Micheal Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs as leads. More Than Just A Dream is a 12 track album filled with different themes and tones that bring us right back with that nostalgia. The popular first track “Out Of My League” starts the record off with a light, bouncy, dancy feel. Micheal Fitzpatrick’s voice echoes out and sets us up with perfect movie background music. This leads into one of my personal favorites, “Break the Walls,” which is a passionate harmony about fighting for love and fighting for creativity, breaking the barriers that keep those things in a line and boring and pushing past to feel something. The songs “The Walker” and “Spark” carry similar ideas, lots of talk about blowing speakers and really feeling the music, building into strong choruses about souls, dancing, and being free.

Switching gears with “6am,” we move into more love life themes. It tells a story about someone missing their ex and not being able to fall asleep without them, starting to lose belief in finding new love because it is just too painful. This segways into “Fools Gold,” telling us “Give it up, start beating, hearts have gone cold,” representing lost love and moving on to “find us something better for the next time.” Pivoting away from love, we move into the struggles of being heard in “Keepin Our Eyes Out,” reaching out and calling out to everyone to see if they care, maybe even trying to force them to.

Back to lost love, we enter the emotional “Last Raindrop,” telling a story of a summer love so fragile that changing seasons and other people tear it apart. It questions how both sides will carry on without the magic they once had, with one side praying the other does not give up. “House On Fire” uses a metaphor to walk us through a cheating scandal and the hurt and betrayal it caused, showing how a stable relationship can fall apart and turn into something broken and untrusting. Following this, “The End” takes us through the motions of a relationship falling apart, knowing they cannot save it and are only hurting each other, something that feels routine and familiar.

After the end comes the fling, and that is exactly what “Get Away” is. A rush of adrenaline, the excitement and danger of a rebound with no strings attached, asking to “take me on a getaway” as a way to leave real life behind for a moment. The final closing track “MerryGoRound” gives us closure, reminding us that life just goes on and the cycle continues to repeat. It is not something you can leave, so it is best to sit back and let life take you for a ride.