Bedroom R&B artist Puma Blue dabbles in trip hop and more detailed music than ever before on his outstanding new album, Croak Dream.
Release date: February 6, 2026 | Play It Again Sam Records | Instagram | Bandcamp | Website
There are only a few times a year that I find a record worthy of obsession. It is easy to get into patterns as a music nerd/critic. I hear so much music that it starts to kind of run together. I focus on whatever I am reviewing for the week, catch some new releases, talk about music all day with a few friends and my fellow writers, and the next week there is something else to focus on. In our attention economy and with the world of recorded music accessible any time in our pockets, it is increasingly rare that something holds our attention for longer than a week, if for most listeners even that. So, if you can tell where this is going, when I find a record that lingers, that I don’t get tired of after a few spins, I have to write about it. My first obsession worthy record of 2026 is Croak Dream by Puma Blue.
I first heard Puma Blue in late 2022 or early 2023. I was invited to join some friends to the Shakey Knees music festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Naturally, the artists I was unfamiliar with had to be listened to so I could weigh my options at the festival. There were a few standout artists that I hadn’t heard before like Water From Your Eyes or Tanukichan, but one that struck me as good, but somehow underappreciated was Puma Blue. Shakey Knees is very rock-centered, indie kids flooding the park to see The Killers or Muse, but I tend to dig punk and metal and hip hop more. As a result, about half of the shows at the festival I attended alone while my cohorts ventured to other stages, but one of the shows we all agreed on was Puma Blue who played his lo-fi R&B early on the main stage. We all vibed to it, and I kept an eye on the artist, a solo project by Jacob Allen.
Allen’s earlier work as Puma Blue is mellow, kind of an ambient inspired bedroom R&B sound. It has always been good, but on Croak Dream he really comes into his own (insert Patrick Bateman meme). Allen plays guitar and sings, but also produces and arranges the rest of the music with a touring band for live performances. His lyrics are often relationship-based, fitting for the R&B label, but he also has a tag on Bandcamp as Gothic R&B, owing to Puma Blue‘s often eerie and enveloping atmosphere. His last album, antichamber in 2025 was a more acoustic singer/songwriter affair. On Croak Dream, Puma Blue leans into the sort of logical conclusion of his previous sounds in the form of trip hop, which is also the logical conclusion for my own recent interest in jazz and art pop in the wake of a long hip hop fixation.
But the coincidence of this new direction in sound aligning with a style of music I didn’t know I needed more of in my life isn’t enough to make me fawn over this album. PVA just released an excellent, albeit more electronic, trip hop album, and while I heard that first and greatly enjoyed it, Croak Dream hits my preferences in all the right ways. “Desire” starts off the album with a snappy breakbeat and Allen’s soft, cooing voice sings seductively as guitars and organ carve out repetitive spots in the mix. The track is about lust, and it builds up like sex, escalating into a club-worthy climax and even a catch-your-breath coda at the end. Sexy music isn’t normally my thing, but this track has enough intriguing layers and beats to rise above the typical horny music we hear. Puma Blue has more tricks up his sleeve, though.
“Mister Lost” is a paranoid sounding examination of the failure of courage in the face of monotony, painting the character of a husband and father who seeks drink and escapism from the very things he worked to achieve. It is a dark and tense track that feels unique in Puma Blue‘s catalogue with repetitive rhythms and dub effects that emphasize the existential frustrations of the character. Much of the record is on brand, style-wise, but the production sounds so much more detailed and absorbing than previous efforts. Fans of Puma Blue‘s earliest work will find comfort in tracks like the somber ballad “Hold You”, even if saxophones and samples ring in the background. Similarly, “(Fool)” feels like a predictable sound, just bigger and more realized than before.
Then there are tracks like “Croak Dream” that unavoidably invite Radiohead comparisons. The steady beat and building electric guitars feel immediately recognizable, Allen’s higher register voice delivered with insistence and nuance as the song intensifies and he holds a falsetto note over the driving beat and strumming guitars that made OK Computer a classic. For all of the surface similarities, though, Puma Blue is far from a copycat, as this song fits perfectly into the mood and tone of the whole album, which is a stellar feat in and of itself. When ballads like “Heaven Above, Hell Below” or the aforementioned “Hold You” feel just as natural as the title track or the spaced-out club turn that “Jaded” takes.
The unifying factor is Allen’s heart, his longing and yearning, like on the jazzy “Yearn Again” or his moments of heartbreak give Croak Dream a color palette that matches the blue and black cover art. This is night time music, even I have mostly listened during the day, perfect for lonely drives home after seeing your ex at a bar or the kind of youthful soundtrack to a night of partying with friends as the pre-dawn light rises and you all know the end is coming soon. “Hush” flirts with nursery rhyme lyrics as the deep bass, twinkles of piano, and flourishes of saxophone recall the heyday of ’90s trip hop, soulful and immaculately cool. “Silently” works in more eerie sound design, but manages to be another single-worthy banger despite the gothic overtones, like a 2000s R&B single reimagined by UNKLE at their darkest.
Croak Dream is all vibes. There is a mood and tone to this record that remains consistent, even through all of its wilder experimentations, haunting yet sentimental, emotional, but undeniably cool. Puma Blue has gone from an artist that got my casual attention to one that gets my full attention by showing more attention to detail than he ever has before resulting in an album that thrills and soothes simultaneously. I have to start keeping track on my favorite albums of 2026, not only because I will inevitably listen to hundreds of hours of music this year, but because Croak Dream is the current album to beat for me. In the last two weeks, I have listened to this album every single day, and that is proof of concept, right there.
