When The Ships Of My Dreams Return (Gate)

Adam Goldberg's fourth album as The Goldberg Sisters is a sonic miracle of patient happenstance. When the Ships of My Dreams Return is his most expansive album yet in terms of style and lyrical themes, showcasing the accomplished multi-hyphenate's ability to channel his energy into exploring unfamiliar terrain and re-emerging with a musical map that charts thrilling new paths for himself. This is music that's as personal as it gets-tactile and intimate, to the point where you can practically feel his fingers on the synths-and it's all the better for bearing it's creator's singular stamp. When the Ships of My Dreams Return follows 2018's Home: A Nice Place to Visit, which was finished right when Goldberg's first son turned one year old-signaling an effective end to his past practices when it came to creative pursuits: "In the past, I'd carve out time to make music before going off to do an acting job. There was a finite period of time in terms of the limitations I'd put on the recording process." The emergence of acting work, as well as Goldberg's increasingly involved family life, resulted in his pushing music to the side for a spell, to the point where he wondered whether he'd return to the practice at all. "I'm doing it for myself, oftentimes just with myself," he explains about what usually drives his creative impulse. "It used to be that I couldn't stop making music-it wasn't really a choice. I often felt like it was a compulsory intrusion."