The Dreams Of Our Mothers' Mothers! (LP)

Since her surprisingly fully formed and beautifully surprising debut album Lemon Law landed in 2019 with breakout single 'Extreme Highs', Mousey - the songwriting nom de plume of Ōtautahi's Sarena Close - has been slowly but surely honing her craft. Her 2022's album My Friends drew praise from all corners, with Rolling Stone Australia noting "Mousey's lyricism and songwriting are excellent, bolstered by the album's phenomenal production".
Now, once dubbed by Radio New Zealand as "one of the brighter young talents on the New Zealand music scene", this APRA Silver Scroll nominee returns with her first southern utterance since My Friends announcing her new album; The Dreams of our Mothers' Mothers!.

The album was recorded, mixed, and largely performed by the musical partnership of Sarena and Will McGillivray (Goodwill), with Winegum Records' Chris Close lending his percussive skills to three tracks, and Terence O'Connor (Blue Nude) providing smatterings of guitar and violin.

Never one to stay still for long, the recording process began when Sarena's son - who was often present at the sessions - was only four months old.

"I was so sleep deprived and still in shock from all the pressures of parenthood," Sarena explains, "half of the recording process was done in a very distressed haze on my part. Will really pushed us through the process and I'm so thankful for that."

From the intimacy and pain of Sufjan Stevens' most emotive moments to the grandeur and beautiful drama of Mitski, the darker moods of Portishead's starker work to to the swagger and passion of Perfume Genius, the influences here are many and varied. But make no mistake, this is all Mousey, purest form Mousey… a fully realised, and really quite remarkable Mousey.

"These albums that I've been making have become good vehicles to help me understand myself," Sarena says. "It's a privilege that I get to discover and express myself in such a way and also that some people would be interested in watching it all go down."

Already unafraid of aiming high and making ambitious, complex music, The Dreams of our Mothers' Mothers! is the sound of an artist at the very top of her game. It is an album made out of necessity, and made as Sarena Close's truest form of expression. If ever Mousey deserved a moment, this is it.