Empress Of
Dream House
GIANT
Empress Of is in the eye of the storm. Written in the wake of the 2025 Altadena fires that destroyed her family home, Dream House invitingly documents both a physical and psychological rebuilding for the Honduran-American artist. Her fifth album is a synth-pop meditation on everything that makes life lush, fulfilling, nurturing: as her new home’s walls go up, Empress Of lets her own walls down.
Cascading like a waterfall, sweeping opener “Wild Storm” sets the tone for a precious record about what it takes to realize dreams. Empress Of allows herself to be carried away, the purity of her voice slicing through unease: “I lost myself / In a wild storm, I’m home / Left you all alone.” Though she’s overwhelmed, the album weaves in surrounding moments of peace—birds chirping, leaves rustling—that manage to feel authentic and textural. Soon after, blue skies break through in the angelic Blood Orange collaboration “Blue Light,” where the duo emphasize viscerality over vision.
Dream House prevails as strikingly immersive, spotted with audio from her house’s reconstruction (the pouring of concrete, speaking with inspectors) and snippets of her mother’s voice. Though Empress Of’s fluttery pop has experienced many metamorphic phases over the past decade, it’s felt consistently grounded—and this continues to ring true, even on an album reflecting on the literal uprooting of her home. Driven thoughtfully by curiosity and love, this whirlwind album represents healing as a process of rediscovery rather than rebirth. She learns to befriend chaos on the headbanging, pleading “SYW” with Cecile Believe (facing “a natural disaster after you treat me like a stranger”), and she slashes through hurt on the confident “Machete.”
On this path, however, loneliness and doubt still linger. Pangs of social anxiety surge through the relatable “Missing Out On,” erupting into a glitchy climax before retreating to the quiet of rainfall. Even on the undeniably sexy earworm “HandsOn,” there’s a claustrophobic anxiety that creeps in at the end in the form of a “butterfly in a glass jar.” And she doesn’t know who she’s praying to on “I Pray 4 U,” but with hope, she’s on her knees. She treats each of these songs with tenderness and intention, braiding together her story of reconstruction with several cinematic interludes. “My dream is about to get true,” her mother realizes on the interlude “Welcome to the House” as she steps into her new home.
The touching moment leads into the distorted synth of album closer “Dream House,” a title track that glimmers with that tingly, piercing feeling of making a dream a reality. Here, Empress Of finally embraces the storm around her, finding a safe haven in her brand new home. There’s tea on the stove, a soft breeze drifting through the window, a warm sense of gratitude. She owns her optimism with a sense of fulfillment and pride, and on Dream House, the front door is always open.
