There are break‐up records, and then there are break‐up records. Idealistic Animals is a break‐up record, but it’s not the kind that finds 28‐year‐old Cheri MacNeil, the woman behind the artful, charming Dear Reader, weeping into her chamomile tea about a coldhearted cheat who left her high and dry. Instead it’s a break‐up record with faith, an album that examines the consequences of realising that the very foundation on which one has built one’s life is worse than flimsy. In her earlier years MacNeil devoted her life to her faith in a manner that she admits was close to fanatical, but, at the start of her twenties, doubts started to creep in. Some of these were hinted at on Dear Reader’s debut album, the gentle but occasionally biting Replace Why With Funny, and she’s not the first to wrestle with such problems: coincidentally, labelmates Menomena have sought solace in art as they struggle with the repercussions of a religious upbringing, and their Grammy nominated designer, Craig Thompson, addressed the topic in his multi‐award winning graphic novel, Blankets. But, on Dear Reader’s follow‐up, MacNeil examines and responds to the fallout that’s followed the loss of her belief system in an unusually transparent fashion, expressed with an instantly recognisable blend of heart‐on‐the‐sleeve honesty, fanciful poetry and winningly crafted songwriting.