When someone exposes a damaged and aching soul from the underbelly of despair, it can be an instant classic and trigger a surge of emotions. Jimmy Demers's album, Dream a Little, is a broken heart speaking from experience, with lyrics filled with pain and sorrow that in the highs and lows show triumph and opportunity. These love soaked ballads ooze out a recurrence of bummers and broken hearts in a sad and depressing atmosphere. These explorations, translated through Demers's excellent voice, touch the heart.

What propels Dream a Little is that his songs are filled with pain and make them real. There are no hokey fairy tales prancing in front of us, making us delusional. Demers, with masterful care and diligence for each note, bares his soul in a profound way that makes his work unsurpassed. Even with the lost love and downer prowess, there's something about them that whisks us away to a more beautiful place; maybe because it speaks at rock bottom, so you can only go up. Towards the middle of the album, the tempos increase to a more inspirational feeling, making it seem like everything isn't as it seems, that things might improve. Hope flickers on and off throughout, just like sun breaking through the clouds routinely to shine its rays below.

Demers returns to slower ballads towards the conclusion of the album. Dream a Little is very cyclical and resembles a metaphor of dreams acting as little memories coming and going in an instant. Demers's voice soothes us and smoothes out the shards of hazardous, emotional lyrics that can gash our heart. If you're a romantic, at some point in your love sapped life Demers may be the guy for you in the darkest hour.