Though he claims Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney as inspirations, Waukesha native Ian Ash doesn’t quite as much encompass the simultaneous universality and specificity of The Beatles and The Beach Boys at their best (the latter band’s “Vegetables” inspired the album title). Instead, he masters the broad emotional sweeps of songwriters such as Diane Warren and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, with lyrics into which listeners can insert themselves without much thought to their composers’ circumstances. Ian and The Dream’s mélange of soft rock signifiers—plenty of piano, the odd “Penny Lane” horn flourish and muted reggae rhythm—abet their populist aspirations. After 12 such songs, Ash ends Cauliflower with an extended track of the kind of experimental, almost music concrete tomfoolery in which his heroes were known to indulge.
