Parannoul is a one-man music project out of Seoul. For someone self-described as “just a student writing music in my bedroom,” his new album is mighty ambitious. Last month Parannoul released To See The Next Part Of The Dream, his second LP following last year’s debut Let’s Walk On The Path Of A Blue Cat. It hasn’t gotten much coverage — as far as I can tell, the only media attention the album has received is an episode of the Tape Deck podcast last week. Somebody posted it on the indieheads subreddit this week, and the post was removed because an album released on Feb. 23 no longer qualifies as “fresh,” which is fair, I guess — except To See The Next Part Of The Dream is absolutely fresh, sonically speaking. I’m glad Stereogum contributor Ian Cohen tweeted about it, or else it would have completely slipped past me like so many Bandcamp gems.

Drawing inspiration from Parannoul’s personal struggle and depression as well as his rock star dreams, To See The Next Part Of The Dream presents a compelling blend of shoegaze, bedroom pop, and emo. It’s mostly quite lo-fi, but that doesn’t much hinder the splendor; Cohen’s references to the Radio Dept. and The Glow Pt. 2 are on point. Basically, you can expect to encounter big fuzz, big feelings, and some astonishingly expansive home-recorded rock music.

In a message on Bandcamp, Parannoul writes:

This is an album about a person whose body is an adult but mind is still a child, due to the wide gap between ideal and reality. He believes he is talented, and he thinks he will definitely become a world tour rock star in the future. In reality, however, he had never played a guitar while he was 21, his singing skills are fucking awful, and is below average in height and appearance and everything. How will he react now, who has just faced reality as an adult after adolescence?

This album contains references to many things that influenced my adolescence, such as Lily Chou Chou, Welcome to the NHK, Goodnight Punpun, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Rather than trying to exclude it, I put it as honestly as I wanted.

The feelings that I have felt for the past 3 years are also honestly contained.

Delusion, Inferiority, Past, Non-adaptation, Escapist, Fantasy and Disillusion, Struggle, Most Ordinary Existence, Lethargy, and Suicide.

Only complaints about those feelings are left in this album, and there is no such thing as overcoming them. I can’t give you a sweet word of consolation. I can’t say “It’s gonna be okay someday”.

I just hope there will be more active losers like me in the world.

Anyway, the album is great. Listen to it.