Attempting to suit all of Daryl Johns’ influences into one field is a frightening process. Among the many many inspirations for his self-titled debut album, he’s cited “Jessie’s Lady” and “Baba O’Riley”; emo and Hüsker Dü; Quick Instances at Ridgemont Excessive; the ’60s, ’80s, and the hair, particularly, of the ’70s; burgers, shakes, and fries; and Mickey Mouse. To attempt to make sense of all of it is to be a hapless Tony Montana standing earlier than the mountain of blow on his desk, muttering, “We gotta get organized right here.” Good luck with all that.
Daryl Johns started a decade in the past as a sequence of unreleased songs when Johns, a classically educated upright bass participant and jazz prodigy, acquired sick of taking part in requirements and began noodling round with completely different genres, “quilting pop melodies collectively in a maximalist method,” as he places it. And after signing with buddy and well-known chiller Mac DeMarco’s label, Johns started experimenting together with his personal offbeat takes on indie rock. However it could be remiss to mistake the sum for its elements; Daryl Johns is not any pastiche, as an alternative creating its personal sprawling universe of loosey-goosey, feel-good jaunts. Portray trendy landscapes in retro strokes, the album’s sound is uniquely recent but acquainted in 1,000,000 completely different instructions.
Lead single “I’m So Critical” is probably the most synth-pop-inspired track on the album. Within the neon-drenched music video, Johns leans full-tilt into MTV-style Americana, shredding in entrance of a Mel’s Drive-In (one other inspiration he’s named: “diner rock”). Whereas intelligent and positively a banger, “I’m So Critical” can also be the album’s most literal track, preferring to rehash its influences somewhat than delve into one thing stranger. Nonetheless, the winkingly self-referential lyrics within the bridge appear to function a sweeping introduction to the entire album: “Hit the EQ,” he yelps by means of the fourth wall. “Now trip the amount.”
By the remainder of the album, we study that eclecticism is Johns’ chief energy. In “Barbecue within the Solar” and “Mates Ceaselessly,” he melds ’80s textures with ’60s pop varieties, reverbing the hell out of his layered, DIY-Ronettes vocals. His fragmented lyrics evoke bits and items of roller-rink nostalgia—by no means outlining a transparent scene, however creating vivid, blurry flashes of the fleeting moments earlier than the lights come up. No surprise he’s described the album’s sound as “TV jingle recollections.”
