Progressive 80’s pop / sophisti-pop

While I think you’re right that dream pop and shoegaze both emphasise texture over melody, I don’t think they’re exactly synonymous. I tend to think of shoegaze as distinctly derived from rock, explicitly in its use of affected guitar to achieve its textures.

Despite the use of the word pop in the name, dreampop and shoegaze are generally seen as synonymous and interchangeable. Often you’ll find that what is described as shoegaze on one side of the Atlantic, is referred to as dreampop on the other.

A lot or rock is pop anyway, so it’s somewhat spurious to imply they are wholly different. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Whether the music is more rock-oriented, or more pop-oriented, dreampop/shoegaze is essentially alternative rock that focuses on texture over melody. The 4AD bands were often labelled as dreampop, for example. And, since I was talking about NAO and Nordic Giants in my post, I may as well mention that fellow Kscope artists, Engineers, have also been labelled dreampop.

Personally, even though I like a lot of bands that have been labelled that way, I don’t use it myself as I tend to feel that there is so much difference between all the bands, that it renders the label somewhat arbitrary and meaningless - similar to grunge, in that respect.

I’m a really big fan of Nordic Giant’s Amplify Human Vibration album, too, which isn’t really anything like Fog Electric, but for some reason my mind always pairs the two albums up, and generally if I listen to one of those albums, I end up wanting to listen to the other one, too.

Listen to those Ferry albums...

and then this one....by Simple Minds..New Gold Dream and also Sparkle In The Rain...but many of them might fit your bill.

But my personal favorites are Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call...both brilliant art pop and instrumental things also.

One of my all time favorite tracks by them...

I know a lot of modern sophisti-pop groups (I run an online group on the genre) but none of them mix in progressive elements like this. So good. Are their other albums similar?

I’ll have to revisit those Ferry albums. Thanks.

Can you recommend some Simple Minds?

The Blue Nile

Prefab Sprout

China Crisis

Japan

Joe Jackson (first new wave, later sophisti-pop)

The Pale Fountains

The Painted World