Can we really be certain that the reality we experience is its true view? You can hold up a mirror to confirm this, but things can get blurry when you see right through the glass if multiverses or simulation theories are to believed. Jana Horn’s greatest strength as a songwriter is in her ability to pull reality into dream worlds and vice-versa using this method. The Window Is the Dream, the sophomore follow-up from the Texan artist, connects poetry, observation, and the seeds of the subliminal mind within the same plane even if there are moments where it feels like the lines of time and space dissolve in its frame. There’s a transfixing quality to Horn’s carefully muted style of folkwork where her abstract guided musings and tranquilizing fingerpicking seemingly float above a subtle atmosphere and erase any boundaries between the physical and subconscious realms. Synths in a glowing orb and spectral twinkle, the bellow of lowly bass lines, a slight of piano keys, and nascent drum beats occasionally enter the listen’s scenery, creating an allure into dimensions unknown built with her music, but it’s that occasional pinch to the arm that makes you wonder where the dream begins and ends.

Highlights: “Days Go By”, “The Dream”, “In Between”

Jana Horn’s The Window Is the Dream is available now on No Quarter.

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