Her Fantasy by Matthew Dear

It's no coincidence that "Her Fantasy" -- the celebratory lead single from Matthew Dear's Beams, the followup to 2010's Black City -- is the album's opening track: If Beams is the sound of Matthew Dear waking up after the long, dark night of Black City, then "Her Fantasy" is the sun's first rays, peaking over the horizon. Opening with a head-turning whistle-and-cowbell rhythm, "Her Fantasy" signals Beams' queasy optimism in classic Matthew Dear avant-pop form -- that is, without verses and choruses per se, but by hustling through a series of wickedly catchy sections whose twisted internal logic becomes clear as the song progresses. The track builds to an ecstatic climax, in which Dear's exhortation to "Sit where you stand / hand on your heart / hand on your man" is gradually engulfed in a cloud of treble-tickling distortion. The "Her Fantasy" single also includes the fizzy, synth-horn-led unreleased track "Crimewaves" and Tornado Wallace's late-night disco-house take on "Her Fantasy", in which the Melbourne producer fixes his gaze on the horizon, taking only a few slivers of Matthew Dear's voice with him.