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Kali Uchis’ ‘In My Dreams’ is the escapist fantasy pop we need

Tomorrow is July 4, when we’ll all take a break from this miserable reality and attend cookouts, light some fireworks, and cry over the fact that this usually beloved summer holiday falls on a god damn Wednesday.

Imagination is part of the deal this year, and nothing exemplifies that better than Kali Uchis’ synth-pop escapism fantasy jam “In My Dreams.” Off her debut album Isolation, the song — produced by Gorillaz and featuring Damon Albarn — is starting to circulate via a new Volkswagen Jetta television ad campaign, carefully delivering the lines “Everything is just wonderful/Here in my dreams, here in my dreams” over blippy Casio pop.

But there’s more under the surface from the Colombian-American singer and songwriter, who on “In My Dreams” lyrically cites her mother using cocaine and her man messing around before Albarn offers up this: “The moments we are happiest/Happiest, happiest/Are the moments that we don’t exist/Don’t exist, don’t exist.” There’s a reason for this needing to escape, and wanting to go back to bed.

A reason to stay awake: Kali Uchis plays Boston’s House of Blues on October 16.