Between Dreams, the second full-length album from Vancouver’s FRANKIIE, is psychedelic in the way that makes the best works of psychedelia timeless, existential, and exciting. The record’s sonic world, which weaves between reverb-soaked dream-pop, vintage classic-rock, bedroom-psych, and beachy shoegaze, presents the dreamy and the real as one continuum between which there are no borders, and where magic abounds all over.

The laid-back Laurel Canyon groove of opener “Visions” captures this wholeness in just one song, with vocalist/guitarist Francesca Carbonneau and vocalist/keyboardist Nashlyn Lloyd building perfect pop melodies and cathedral harmonies. The song is an invitation to an ethereal, anti-gravity liminal space.

Between Dreams explores our lived experiences in a world constantly shifting and twisting abruptly around us. “What is the dream and what’s reality? What’s normal anymore and does it really matter because you’re just experiencing it all anyways,” says Lloyd. “I think that’s all we’re trying to do: just be in this experience and embrace it fully.”

Carbonneau says that that boundary-free feeling emerged while the band was writing the record during lock down and thereafter. “It was this weird ‘between dreams’ state because nothing was normal, or at least not how it was and we just had to carry on like everyone else,” she says. That led to an attitude where control and power were relinquished to some degree; whatever happened creatively would be explored. “These songs were following a sense of intuition, and not really trying to have them be anything but what instinctively came out. There was no attempt to stick to a certain genre, or take ourselves too seriously”.

The songs for Between Dreams were written mostly at the band’s dark, moldy jam space in east Vancouver, with extra pieces written at home or on writing retreats to rural parts of the province. Some were penned with a rotating cast of collaborators, including previous bassist Vickie Sieczka, new bassist Jody Glenham and drummer Trevor Stöddärt, while others were written with the help of a drum machine they nicknamed ‘Chad.’ (“Chad’s so great, he always shows up on time,” quips Lloyd.)

They recorded eight tracks in Vancouver with producer Jason Corbett at Jacknife Sound, and two with Connor Head at Catalogue Studio in Victoria. The sessions were full of fresh energy and vision: Glenham and Stöddärt lent new angles to the songs, while the world’s standstill meant the band could take their time to build out this audible world. (Lloyd even had to figure out how to sing while nine months pregnant.) 

Jeremy Wallace Maclean mixed the record, lending his experience in composing for film and TV to give the record a broad, cinematic scope. For Lloyd and Carbonneau, the record marks an attainment of a sound they’ve been chasing for years. Carbonneau quotes Miles Davis: “Man, sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself…and this is the closest we've gotten so far,” she adds with a laugh.

The easygoing thrill of “Visions” gives way to the intimate, fuzzy slink of “Garden,” while “Crystal Eyes” and “Passionfruit,” which features flute from Hey Ocean’s Ashleigh Ball, relax into warm, moonlit pools of downtempo reverb and warbling synths. “Down For You” ratchets back up with a dreamy blues strut, and “Cruel” is pure garage-surf chording bliss. Closer “Golden Days” explodes into the sunset after gentle Americana beginnings with wooly lead guitar grit and a bone-rattling crescendo. It bridges the dream world and the real one, blurring them into a singular, affirming experience.

Between Dreams is due out June 2nd, 2023 on Paper Bag Records.