“Have you ever felt your heart race?”
Get in the car and roll the windows down. Dead Lakes are here to provide you with your new set of new summer anthems with their debut studio record, daydreamer.
The band truly delivers on their self-proclaimed “heavy boy band” title with catchy hooks and infectious melodies aplenty. Though this record has more to offer than just catchy songs, with themes of self-discovery and personal growth spliced in too. Placing you in the perspective of its main character, Daydreamer, and it’s meant to be consumed on a solo nighttime drive. Vocalist Sumner Peterson fleshes out that visual by explaining, “I consider the person who gets into that car to be Daydreamer, the whole record is their drive while experiencing the album and living it out.”
Providing this immersive and personal journey for the listener is something that is truly special in today’s landscape of alternative music. Creating a main character and throughline the consumer can experience along with the band is something that deserves to be commended, and with lyrics based on a real-life breakup Sumner went through, it makes it all the more incredibly personal and relatable.
Songs like “Strange Juice”, “Stamina” and “Drown It Out” echo bands of the 2000s ambient rock era like Settings & There For Tomorrow (Remember them!?). Taking the stems of pop-punk with upbeat vocals and drums paired with atmospheric leads with driving bass parts and even some electronic samples added in. Then you have “Hold Back” and “Deceiver”, which sound like they could be in mainstream radio rotation alongside The 1975, Fall Out Boy and Paramore, with choruses bound to get stuck in your head for days on end. “It feels like my own conspiracy like everybody’s out to get me” is just one example of the syrupy hooks littered throughout.
Hearing such a mix of pop punk, rock, hip hop, and R&B feels like what would happen if your favorite 90s boy band all played instruments and wrote a modern rock record. This multi-genre mix provides an insanely wide appeal that will captivate an array of different fans.
All of this points towards daydreamer being your new summer soundtrack as well as a fully immersive experience. So every time there’s a warm summer night with a clear sky, think of Dead Lakes, hop in the car and listen to this stellar album front to back.
Buy it, Stream it, or Skip it?: Buy it. Hop in the car after the sun sets, hit play and enjoy the ride.
