Indie artist Dayglow first hit the mainstream with 2018’s Fuzzybrain — “Can I Call You Tonight,” with more than 600 million streams on Spotify, was the most-listened song on the album. Dayglow continued his momentum with Harmony House in 2021 and People in Motion shortly after, which solidified his personal, introspective style.
But the release of the musician’s self-titled fourth album on Friday shows his dedication to a closed-loop tradition of performing his own material and specializing in thoughtful lyrics
Dayglow wrote, performed and recorded each track at his home studio in Malibu. The artist — whose real name is Sloan Struble — showed off his musical prowess on the first song, “Mindless Creatures,” an upbeat, groovy track with a questioning insecurity in the lyrics. He builds up from a run-of-the-mill intro to an explosive ending.
However, repetitive sounds quickly become apparent in the album as Dayglow struggled to separate from the album’s first song. The guitar tone remained clean and bright, the snare continued with a quick pop, and even Dayglow’s voice seems to follow the same rhythmic and pitch patterns from “Mindless Creatures,” just with a few deviations.
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Despite this, Dayglow still succeeds in creating a fun, if not complex sonic landscape. It’s indicative of an ability to know what works for him, but this doesn’t last.
The simple, clean chord patterns and straightforward lyrics works for songs such as “Cocoon,” it quickly becomes tired on “Old Friend, New Face.” It’s a predictable track that showcases the pitfalls of a one-man-band. When everything is self-contained, it exists in a creative vacuum and grows devoid of range.
Pushing through these drawbacks, “Nothing Ever Does!!!” starts off in a similar fashion to the previous tracks, yet it becomes clear that a point of focus on the album is panic. Dayglow’s voice soon becomes scattered and frantic in a long break on the back half, his breathing more prominent as the lyrics repeat the song’s title.
This bit shows a clear leap into new territory within the project, and while somewhat compelling, it largely suffers due to a full musical commitment to the portrayal of panic. The drums stay steady and the guitar plays a repetitive riff, leading the moment to fail in reaching potential.
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The album’s closer, “Broken Bone,” reverberates in a slow, melodic style from the start that forces listeners to stop and absorb, before it jumps into a fast-paced indie-rock verse from 10 years ago. The track hops back and forth between these two sections before a long, instrumental outro with ringing keyboards and bright guitars.
It’s a segment that sounds oddly reminiscent of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and is full of a unique blend of newness and nostalgia, which brings the album to a successfully sharp end.
While Dayglow is nothing if not tight and well-mixed, the pitfalls come in the repetitive sounds. It’s coupled with vocal styles and lyrics that are in good spirit, yet become uninteresting and vague after so much repetition.
This is a problem faced by a generation of “bedroom” musicians — artists who create, perform and record their own music — such as Dayglow and Mac DeMarco. How do you find new sounds in a self-contained creative space? The answer is often formulaic. DeMarco capitalizes on a few distinct tones, techniques and a laid-back voice that works over most of his wide discography.
In moments of the self-titled album, Dayglow seemed capable of doing the same. There are clear high points that showcase his sheer musical ability and personality, but they’re in the mix with dull songs that could have benefitted from a sonic departure.
