Album Review: Dream Nails - 'You Wish'
It’s been a rollercoaster for Dream Nails; with the highs of positively received record releases and the lows of line-up scrambles, it’s been quite the ride. As 2026 kicks off, the London punks are returning as a triple threat with their most abstract and artistic era to date. To see in this new year and new start in style, enter You Wish.
Scaling back to basics with a guitar-bass-drums collaboration, one of the most outspoken outfits rising through the ranks isn’t holding back their fire. They are stoking the flames of life in other aspects. Their lead single ‘This Is Water’ looks at the collective identity of the human race, comparing day-to-day rushes to fish swimming in a body of water. It’s a track written to stress the importance of togetherness in the wider picture: humans may lead their own lives and make their own motions, but in the end, everyone is still doing what everyone else is doing, and that is living and surviving.
With bassist Mimi Jasson speaking the fact of, “Other people are me, other people are you”, it hammers home that everyone is existing at the same time, on the same planet. Everyone is fish that are swimming as their nature intends, but without stopping to take a break and take in that they are never alone. The repeated chants of, “This is water, this is water” represents a snap back into reality. Like a fish swimming in water without a second thought of being submerged, people will walk through life without a second thought. Maybe it’s time to stop and look around, like Jasson implies, and separate oneself from the mundaneness of routine.
You Wish focuses on the human experience in a mix of their trademark skepticism and their newfound pure curiosity. From viewing themselves as complete structures in ‘House of Bones’, commenting they are “always home”; to comparing education and personal development to technological processes in ‘The Information’. This is a fresh source of inspiration for the band, and something they are not only taking full fascination in, but also a bit of fun. An act that is forever paying homage to the humble beginnings of punk, especially the politically charged chapter of riot grrrl, they are finding there is something enjoyable about making one’s thoughts and beliefs into art. This enjoyability becomes passion, and passion creates the most memorable masterpieces.
Near the end of the record is the track ‘Zeroes’, which has Jasson making subtle references to the Y2K conspiracy phenomenon from the turn of the millennium. Repeatedly singing the line, “The zeroes are coming”, Jasson soon follows the statement with one single question: “Are we the ones?” With other lyrics referring to the unknown of the future and anxiety over the end of the world, the track seems to not only look back at this 26-year-old story but also look into the future with evolving technology and the idea of looming doomsdays due to international and political events. It tells a story that humanity will always, at any time in any way, feel they are just moments away from disaster. A natural event, or a computer glitch, or a world conflict that comes to one’s doorstep. It’s normal to feel scared, and it’s normal to feel unprepared, because it is a part of being alive and being a citizen of Earth, and this is a hard but an important lesson to learn.
Being a band is about learning how each other’s dynamics can work together and how to mix and match ideas and concepts into something big and beautiful. With the changing and adapting that Dream Nails had to do over the last few years, they had to rinse-and-repeat this work with every change. However, three is a magic number and You Wish is the rabbit pulled out of the hat. Dream Nails have indeed nailed it once again.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
