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Include part-time Chicago bank teller Carey Ott on a short list that includes Ron Sexsmith, Neil Finn and Josh Rouse, sensitive, crafty souls whose ways with words pulls us in like fireflies. Whether finger-picking a slumber-filled McCartneyish summer song like "Kicking Stones," revving the '60s sunshine love in "You Got Love" or adopting a svelte falsetto in brisk opener "Am I Just One," Ott consistently hits all the right notes with a clear-eyed sense of joy. An album of small moments and pervasively uplifting melodies, Lucid Dream never delves too deep or shoots too high, Ott acting like a temperate street busker reflecting our lives as we rush by. He even alludes to cult favorites like Michael Penn ("Daylight") and David Gates (or is that Rufus Wainwright in "Hard to Change"?) Dream on.
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- Ken Micallef / HARP Magazine / Sept.-Oct. 2006
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 Carey Ott has a quality that no amount of marketing could embellish or hide. He is a hard working musician that lets his music do all the talking. His songs have a way of sounding familiar and inventive while at the same time reaching listeners with substance, not lumping them in the head with form. Through a combination of feeling, voice, and the sounds that magnify these talents Ott fills an indie-pop canvas with different shades of some well used colors. Lucid Dream, his solo debut is set to release on the historically country-fried Dualtone label and while his sound is just about anything but honky tonkin’, they think he’s worth the chance.
Talented where it’s most important, Ott is as convincing a songwriter as he is a singer which is a duality in minority among many of his peers. The subtleties hidden in the record’s production give many of the tracks a complexity that is not overbearing to the lay listener while satisfying the most hardened buffs. Most four minute songs don’t demand this much attention. Where many modern pop contingents would abhor a slide guitar sight unseen, Ott uses it tastefully as a driving force, but only where it fits. Lucid Dream is not a repetitious highlight reel of what’s been successful for other people lately, it is the culmination of an artist’s ambition...>>> more >>>
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Chicago’s Carey Ott www.careyott.com downloads at: www.dualtone.com on the other hand is far more varied pop music disc than Joshua’s. Carey has a great knack for finding a hook, sticking with it throughout the song’s 3 to 4 min. time frame on his Dualtone debut, “Lucid Dream”. A clever, Beatlesque rocking affair. Not a clunker to be found on this disc. The kind of music Paul McCartney should be making these days. Most likely going to be in my year end poll.
Stand out tracks for me:
“Am I Just On”
“Shelf Life”
“Lucid Dream”
Grade:
A
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“If Radiohead went Americana, you mighty get Carey Ott. On his gem of a debut, the Chicago-based singer summons the Kinks’ trick of combing lilting vocals with punishing guitars, and the insightful “Daylight” sounds like a lost White Album track. However, Ott is already more than the sum of his influences. The mordant “Shelf Life” laments the passing years with a surprisingly bright melody, while “Virginia” finds the singer talking himself out of a tryst even as he climbs the girl’s stairs. Ott has a cinematic talent for chronicling awkward moments that leave the listener no dding in rueful recognition. We defy you not to say, “Yeah, been there.”
For fans of: Damien Rice, Ron Sexmith, Ray Davies
–Performing Songwriter Magazine
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Carey Ott's melodic pop is catchy and appealing March 9, 2006
Former Chicagoan Carey Ott's new LP is one of a good-sized handful of anticipated 2006 releases from Nashville's rock and pop community — and judging by early tastes of it, might be one of the discs with the widest appeal.
Due out in May on Nashville label Dualtone, Ott's Lucid Dream straddles a couple of melodic lines comfortably, with sounds that fit in the pop singer-songwriter landscape with fellow Nashvillian David Mead and former Nashvillian Josh Rouse, but also keeps a moody melodicism that will appeal to Anglophiles who gravitate more toward polished Britrock players like Travis.
It's the kind of pop that can appeal to both collegiate types and their moms — á la Coldplay — in that it's inoffensive and catchy, but still has some youthful enthusiasm. Fans of TV's Grey's Anatomy got a little preview of Ott's new music early this year, when the show played Dream's leadoff track, Am I Just One, in a January episode.
Before heading off to Austin for the South by Southwest music festival, Ott plays a hometown set tonight at 12th & Porter (114 12th Ave. N., 254-7250) with Stephanie Dosen, starting at 7 p.m. Cover is TBA.
—Nicole Keiper, Staff Writer 
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Carey Ott - Lucid Dream Thursday March 16, 2006
Dualtone
It's no secret that singer/songwriters are a dime a dozen. However, long before you get to the first chorus of the opener "Am I Just One" it's clear that Chicago-born, Nashville-based tunesmith Carey Ott has a unique flair for executing catchy, thoughtful tunes. With the exception of a chiming Fender Rhodes, the instrumentation is stock bass/guitar/drums, but Ott and veteran producer Ray Kennedy have crafted an unusually warm and rich-sounding record that pairs the tunes with flawless arrangements.
Central to the recipe is Ott's voice, which floats effortlessly around and through the melodies. You'll hear a bit of the stark intimacy of singer/songwriters like Ron Sexsmith, but perhaps because Ott used to front the regional alt-rock band Torben Floor, there's the sense that you're listening to arrangements that were honed on the road by a well-oiled band. "Daylight" has a chorus that taps a classic Beatles progression -- the first of many on the disc; the outro of "Shelf Life" has some of the sweetest, most buoyant pop harmonies this side of the Beach Boys; and the title track is a paean to lucid dreaming that served as one of Ott's inspirations. Fact is, whether you're a sucker for pop hooks, good singing or a great pop band, there's little not to like on this record. My guess is "Lucid Dream" will end up on a number of "Top 10" lists for 2006.
www.dualtone.com <http://www.dualtone.com/> .
- Michael Lipton 
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