The Dream marks a new chapter for close friends and longtime collaborators Finneas and Ashe, joined by drummer David Marinelli and guitarist Ricky Gourmet. Collectively they make up The Favors, a band born out of friendship and the shared desire to make music without boundaries.
Finneas and Ashe have worked together many times through the years, beginning in 2019 when they co-wrote her breakthrough hit "Moral of the Story". Two years later, they reunited for their duet "Till Forever Falls Apart" on Ashe's debut album. Now with David and Ricky, two musicians who have also been integral to Finneas' solo work, including his 2024 album For Cryin' Out Loud! - they reintroduce themselves as artists in this new collaborative effort. The album feels like a natural extension of the friendship and creative partnership they all share, opening up new sides of their artistry while embracing a more collective approach.
On Instagram, the band described the process of making the record as "...unfiltered, no expectations, zero pressure". They added, "No one asked us for this, this was for us until we realized we made something unique enough to share." That shared ethos of The Favors shines through in the music itself. There is a classic, timeless sound that radiates joy throughout, the kind of joy that only comes when an artist is creating freely, without constraint or expectation. It feels deeply authentic to all four of them as artists, while still being distinctly different than much of the work they have made in the past.
The first introduction into the world of The Favors came with the album's lead single "The Little Mess You Made". It comes off as a conversational back-and-forth conflict between Finneas and Ashe, as they detail the end of a relationship with a sharply written and cynical outlook on love - particularly with a lines like "maybe second place is just the first to lose" and "say when, you'll never see me again, just pretend she was just a friend".
The song continues to escalate throughout until it reaches an explosive exchange. "The little mess you made is all over the news, the littlest mistake can leave the darkest bruise," they sing in the second verse. "Maybe I'm too late, maybe it's too soon, who gets all the blame? I guess it's up to you"
Reflecting on choosing "The Little Mess You Made" as the lead single, they wanted to go with something that best represented their shared dynamic, while also being something completely different than where they left off in 2021 with "Till Forever Falls Apart". "The last time the world heard us together, it was on such a sweet, tender song and we loved the idea that out the gate you get to hear us fighting for our lives, fighting with each other," Ashe said in an interview with Rolling Stone. Finneas continued by adding, "I think a first single has to go out into the world as your representative in a kind of a funny way — there are a couple jazzy tunes I love on this album, there's a couple ballads I love, but if they had been the first single, you might be lead to believe that we made a jazz album." It was chosen as the album's lead single because it really does encapsulate their shared dynamic and the overall feeling of this project in such a perfect way.
Joining the ranks of countless great male/female duets through the years, The Favors invite easy comparisons to iconic acts that came before them, with Fleetwood Mac being the most obvious touchstone. Yet their sound resists being boxed in by such parallels. So many of these songs exude the feeling and aesthetics of Los Angeles in the 1970's, while still maintaining a distinctly modern sensibility. A major portion of this album tells the story of chasing your dreams in California, a tale as old as time in a lot of ways, but they offer a new perspective to it. At times it carries a very La La Land motif, with a dreamer moving out West with the hope of "making it", only to find themselves confronting the often harsh realities of those ambitions and the cost of chasing those dreams.
One of the most compelling aspects of The Dream is the way it continually shifts perspectives. Sometimes the songs are written from the outside looking in, observing those down on their luck in search of their big Hollywood break and examining the enduring allure of the city. Others capture the viewpoint of those left behind by someone chasing their dreams, haunted by the lingering questions of what might have been if they had stayed. At other times they take on a more insular approach, reflecting on their own personal experiences as native Californians navigating what it means to chase your dreams and the sacrifices that often come along with it.
The title track "The Dream" best represents the overall thesis of the album. From its opening verse, "You lied to your mother, she thinks that you're famous, but you're undercover, you're missing your payments", the song immediately sets the tone of Hollywood disillusionment. It paints the portrait of someone lying to themselves and everyone around them, clinging to the idea of that they're living the dream, while the reality beneath the surface is much darker and more bleak.
The chorus continues to shape that notion, "Hard not to feel pathetic, maxing out your credit card on someone's beverage, someone you just met at the bar," they sing in the chorus. "She lives in Venice, daddy was a tennis star, now she's a menace". It captures the superficiality and desperation of chasing this lifestyle, while also exposing the hollowness beneath the façade. The bridge drives that point home with unfiltered honesty. "I know if you wanted to call, you would, you live in your car, but you say you're in Hollywood, you sold your guitar just to pay for that video you sent to the studio," they sing. That verse ends with a simple and poignant line that really captures the realities of the entertainment industry, "It's all about who you know".
One of the most unexpected moments of the album ties directly into this same theme, on the second to last song called "Someday I'll Be Back in Hollywood". Unlike the observational lens "The Dream" is written from, this song takes on the first-person perspective of the dreamer themselves. It's also the only track where drummer David Marinelli steps into the role of lead vocalist, making it a standout highlight of the record.
"The band's breaking up, and I can't complain, you know I love playing drums, but it feels like a cage or I’ve gotten stuck just acting my age," he sings in the opening lines. "I'm loading a truck for minimum wage, 'cause what else do you do when the music thing slows down?" His delivery captures the tension between chasing youthful ambition and adult reality in such a specific and relatable way. The desire to keep chasing the dream, not wanting to let his younger self down, but recognizing the need to walk away for the sake of his future is a central theme of this song and the record overall. "Someday I'll be back in Hollywood and you're gonna pay for what you said about me," he defiantly sings in the chorus. "Someday I'll be back in Hollywood and I'm gonna stay until someone makes me leave".
Together, "The Dream" and "Someday I'll Be Back in Hollywood" are two of the most important moments in shaping the album's narrative. One looks outward, exposing the bleak realities of chasing fame, while the other turns inward, embodying the dreamer's voice and personal outlook.
The rest of the album continues to shape that overarching story, as well as the push and pull of a relationship that circles endlessly. They write from the perspectives of different characters throughout each. Building upon their artistic chemistry, The Favors deliver a string of beautiful ballads, among the standouts being "The Hudson", which is vividly written around a love lost and specific memories of a time they once shared. They tell this story of longing and heartbreak in cinematic detail, as if they are still lost inside the memory. "I don't know where I belong, all I've ever known is gone, I've got nothing but you to lose, I don't know what I believe, please have faith in me, only truth I know is you" they sing in the chorus. Later, they sing with most optimism that this may one day still work out. "Let's meet back here a year from now, maybe then it works out," they sing. "I'll try not to think 'bout you in June, but come December and come the storm, fall back into my arms, walk the Hudson, back to you".
Once again they write from shifting perspectives, this time within a single song. "Part of the band identity involves these characters who are singing about an experience to each other. It's a musical theater design, and it rarely happens in pop. You can picture two individuals in an apartment overlooking the Hudson River singing about the same thing," Finneas explained in an interview with Complex.
While much of the album feels rooted in the story of what it means to chase your dreams in Hollywood, songs like "The Hudson" and "Times Square Jesus" ground the narrative in New York. In this album's narrative, the city represents home, but it also is something they are actively trying to escape in pursuit of their California dreams. At the same time, they fight an inner battle that some things can never fully be left behind.
These conversations within the songs are strikingly beautiful, using the duet format to its fullest potential. The interplay between voices builds the narratives into something so beautiful and emotional, especially on a song like "Times Square Jesus". "No use trying not to be your mother's daughter," Finneas sings in the first verse. "Everybody knows that you're my weakness, you're an open secret I'm afraid, every time I walk by Times Square Jesus, he tells me to confess before my grave," they sing in the chorus. "But I don't wanna be saved".
Finneas reflected on the song's religious imagery in an interview with Complex. He said, "In Times Square and Hollywood, you have Jesus, the Naked Cowboy, Elmo, or whoever else you walk by and pay your respects to. Even if you don’t live a religious life, you're still confronted by religion. When you are, you can’t help but think about your own life, regrets, desires, or baggage. If the 'Times Square Jesus' told you to confess, you might think of the person you're secretly in love with."
"Lake George" also has roots in New York, another stunning ballad and the final song to be written for the album. More pared down than the rest of the record, it holds a special place within the project. Its intimacy transports listeners directly to the setting of a boathouse in Upstate New York, with imagery so vivid that you can literally hear the waves crashing on the shore as they sing about mourning a lost love and the weight that memories of the past hold.
The song carries a deeply personal meaning for Finneas especially, looking back on his own family's memories of visiting Lake George. "It has a personal backstory. We went on a family road trip, and we stayed at the house in Lake George where my father had spent all time as a kid. My dad scattered his mother's ashes there. It was old, and there was no electricity, but it was beautiful. The owner eventually sold it.," he told Complex. "So, I'm superimposing this into a romantic story of a couple going on a trip. Maybe they're not together anymore, and they might have to sell this house where the parents' ashes are. There's a theme of love-and-death." That sense of memory and loss is poignantly depicted on the bridge. They sing, "I've seen the place you were born, the look on your face in the morning, before you're awake, you would keep me warm." It's a line that captures the shared intimacy and ache of their absence so deeply.
One of the most striking aspects of The Dream is the way their voices layer so seamlessly on top of each other, with instrumentals that complement and elevate the story running throughout. For a record that is so varied in sound, it also remains such a cohesive body of work, which is an aspect of production that Finneas has always excelled in.
Some tracks lean in a jazz direction, like the brief but memorable "Ordinary People". Other songs like "Necessary Evils" stand out as underrated gems It features some of the album's most beautiful lyrics alongside an incredible guitar solo that closes the track. "No, I'd never feel bluе if I'd never met you, and I'd nеver be wrong 'cause you'd never be true, if you'd never been born, I'd avoid every storm I drive through for you," they sing, capturing the lingering heartbreak and impact they made on each other's lives.
The harmonies throughout are pure magic, their voices meshing together with an effortless beauty. This is especially true on "Moonshine", a sweet ode about loving someone long into old age. "Won't let you go, even when you don’t remember me," they sing.
There are also lighter, more playful moments like "David's Brother", which has such a catchy melody and tongue-in-cheek energy to it. "My, my, mind, mind in the gutter, on a moonlit drive, la-la-lackluster, got me wishing I was David's brother, on the way home, shoulda stayed home," Finneas sings in the chorus.
"It was really about kind of, like, spinning out after a breakup. And the premise is you're at home and your house is a mess and you're like, 'This is pathetic. Like, I got to go out.' And then you go out and you run into the person that you've broken up with and you’re like, 'This is way worse. Like, I have to go, I should have stayed home.' And so that became the whole thing," Finneas said on an episode of Broken Record Podcast. The title itself comes from an inside joke while brainstorming names, referencing a bar that the brother of the band's drummer, David, frequents. The setting went from not necessarily being a specific place, but rather the universal feeling of seeing someone you once loved with someone new, in this case David's brother.
The album ends with "Home Sweet Home," an incredible way to close out the record. Once again, the song takes shape in New York, its title inspired by a bar on the Lower East Side of the same name. But beyond the literal reference, it plays into the idea that there will always be a "home" in the person you tried so hard to forget and a place you inevitably will always want to return to.
"Summer's hot in New York," they sing, reliving memories that echo the imagery of "The Hudson" earlier in the album. They poignantly repeat over and over in the chorus that "it all comes back to you", a realization that feels like the entire album was building to. It leans into a more retro 60's sound overall, with a guitar solo that amplifies the magic of The Favors as a collective.
Ashe sings, "I tried to warn ya, I've had a hard time letting you go, I still adore ya, I didn't call just to say, 'Hello'". Later, the bridge captures that lingering chemistry that refuses to fade, "When all your friends are headed home, this always ends with us alone, the night's not young, but we still are, you'll bite your tongue, or you'll go too far". The final chorus circles back to California and brings the storyline full-circle, "How's California? I shouldn’t ask, I don't wanna know, I tried to warn ya, I've had a hard time letting you go".
Reflecting on the song's place in the album, Finneas told Complex, "There's a loose thread on the record of going to L.A. to pursue your dream. You might fail or succeed, but New York is where your past is, your old flame is, and your history is. At the end of the album, you're going back to everything you tried to run away from."
The Dream captures both the timeless allure and the personal cost of chasing your dreams while leaving your past behind. The album is grounded in this universal story, as well as the band's collaborative spirit that runs through every single song.
Photo Credit: Interscope Records, Darkroom Records
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