“Tell me that you hate me,” is an interesting way to start a dream pop album, full of feel-good songs. Mexican-born Nacho Cano has been through quite a lot, though, and puts his heart on the line, in his latest album, Springs Eternal, by his project, Harmless. It is an album to sound track love, loss, dreams, and nightmares.

His first album in eight years, it is written to his younger self after a life altering accident with a drunk driver, and viral Tik Tok success, which unfortunately didn’t lead to the musical opportunities that he was hoping for, because of how hard his “non-urban latin” music is to market. That’s where the opening song, “Hate Me,” comes from, a song to the music industry that he never feels good enough for, a theme he feels like often applies to immigrants in America.

In this album, which aims to give his younger self wisdom and perspective, he opts for self-understanding, celebrating the wins and mourning the losses. His disability makes it harder for him to tour, to connect with others, to live his life in general. And while you couldn’t tell he struggles, with such beautiful sounds coming out of his guitar and his soft-spoken voice, the lyrics cut to the heart. “You make it look so easy / You love your life completely / I wish I was you.”

It is an 11 song, thirty some minute album, that could soundtrack anyone’s love/hate relationship with life and its turmoil and triumph. Sometimes recalling the Cure or Beach House, his guitar which swirls spectacularly is music dreams are made of. In an album to his younger self, he attempted to go back to the style of his formative years, and it is expertly produced by Yves Rothman. If his music doesn’t win you over, his backstory certainly will, ending the album with “It’s Only You,” and “Ferrari,” (a play on his wife’s name, Ari,) about the love that he found with a friend in the midst of recovery.

It is an album that puts side by side the vanity of the world and the salve of real love. You can’t help but find comfort in a story of a man who found a love he can rely upon in an unreliable world. It’s sad, for sure, but also triumphant, and the music carries you along like a golden ship headed for what seems like better shores. From the first kiss with his love to the clean up needed in “Aisle Five,” the album covers a lot of ground.

Order Springs Eternal by Harmless HERE