Dream Songs

Dream Songs was self-released by Welsh through his own newly-created record label You Are Accepted. In contrast, the last two Majical Cloudz albums were distributed by Matador Records. In an interview with Billboard, Welsh explained, "I like making music, and I like putting it out there and having people listen to it. The stuff in the middle was stressful to me. I wanted to do it in a way where it was me making the choices and me taking the risks, where I felt like I didn’t have to take a label's vision into account -- or the expectations of anybody else in terms of what success would be defined as."[3]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Exclaim!	7/10[6]
Pitchfork	6.9/10[5]
PopMatters	7/10[7]
Spectrum Culture	[8]
Under the Radar	7.5/10[9]

Reviewing the album for Exclaim!, Matt Bobkin stated that, "Dream Songs pushes Welsh's songcraft forward without abandoning his strengths."[6] Writing for Pitchfork, Evan Rytlewski called Dream Songs an "unflinchingly candid debut solo album" and praised its instrumentation, calling it a "backdrop of lovely, spacious music that grants Welsh's pliable voice full freedom to preen, wander, and soar."[5] BrooklynVegan's Andrew Sacher deemed the album "bigger and more complex, but not so much so that it ruins the intimacy that always made Devon's music appealing" and said, "When Devon rings out his notes, you can feel the passion that's driving every single word. These songs tend to be delicate, but they aren't passive. The emotional weight in these songs is so heavy, that even the quietest moments have no trouble commanding your attention."[2]

Credits adapted from Bandcamp and Discogs.[10][11]

• Devon Welsh – songwriting, string arrangement
• Thomas Beard – cello
• Ben Dwyer – double bass
• Christopher Honeywell – cover photograph
• Kyle Jukka – guitar (on "Summer's End")
• Kate Maloney – violin
• Austin Milne – saxophone (on "I'll Be Your Ladder")
• Harris Newman – mastering
• Austin Tufts – production, string arrangement
• Christoph Vandory – viola