“I am nothing without you / But I don’t know who you are.” Vienna Teng creates her own brand of disarming empathy by populating her new album with lost characters searching for meaning in each other. Dreaming is gorgeously conceived and executed, violin pizzicatos percolating over flashes of accordion, simmering percussion and Teng’s accomplished yet understated piano. Witness the cabaret jazz of “I Don’t Feel So Well” melting into the Emmylou-ish “City Hall”—pure velvet. And while the world probably doesn’t need another reflection on moving house (“1 BR/1 BA”), Dreaming is easily forgiven on the merit of its command, ambition and Teng’s quietly ascendant voice.
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