aaamusic | On 31, Oct 2010

It should be enforced by law now. Anyone who buys a guitar with the intention of finger-picking it and gently crooning confessional lyrics over the top of it should be given a note with said purchase, the note should read, “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE AS GOOD AS LAURA MARLING”. I say this because, for one, Laura Marling is godlike, and two, because it would scare off those seeking to simply emulate her success, and leave those with genuine talent and creativity, like The Daydream Club, to have the spotlight they deserve so very much.

Of course, it’s lazy to compare The Daydream Club with Marling, the club are far more lo-fi orientated than the more traditionally folksy Laura, and the band have an entire extra dimension to themselves when the voices of both guitarist Adam Pickering and vocalist Paula Walker combine to create the most heart rending harmonies this side of a Beach Boys record, see Overgrown and Touch My Bones for proof on the matter. They also achieve something quite unprecedented in my career (Ha!) as a journalist, and make me sit up, take notice and play a song over and over again for about 45 minutes. Said song is called Alarms Ring Out and it is easily the stand out moment of an album entirely made up of stand out moments.

By the albums home stretch the formula wears a bit thin, the limitations of a two piece start to show through (and in the age of The White Stripes there’s really no excuse for that…), thankfully Pickering’s mastery of many instruments decorates the last couple of tracks, including the best use of an accordion in a pop song since Gogol Bordello’s career.

In short, this is a great record, if a little samey and lacking in urgency. But looking beyond its sedateness one should be able to see that these are some superbly written pop songs. If there’s any justice in the world, these songs will, if not top the charts from here to Taiwan, then be taken to heart by a select few that will cherish the band for as long as they live.

Author: Will Howard

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Sometimes the most rewarding aspect of difference in a song can be the
subtleties, rather than the overt stylistic changes. And so it is with the
fathomless ‘Overgrown’ by The Daydream Club, a suitably ethereal blend of pop,
world, folk, and whatever else you might care to sprinkle in round the edges.

Opener ‘On The Move’ is held together by a mesmeric, clattering samba rhythm
and vaguely Spanish guitars, a mournful easy listening heart-on-sleeve flicker of
tenderness that makes for a striking album opener in its understated boldness.
This acoustic guitar mood in repeated in the soft folk caresses of ‘Alarms
Ring Out’, a song that pulls no punches in its wrenchingly sweet tugging of
heartstrings. The sorrowful male vocals contrast and overlap beautifully with the
angelic female vocals to create a truly bittersweet love song in a manner that is
breathtaking and without contrivance.
In direct contrast, ‘The Affair’ is a sweetly twisted and muted piano ballad that
slowly creeps through gothic singsong chords and flawlessly tight harmonised
vocals. The dark lyricism and spooky yet never quite cliché piano work result in
a thickly atmospheric track that wouldn’t go amiss in a Tim Burton film, in the
best possible way. The track teeters into melodrama at points with trembling
operatic notes on the piano, but in doing so it only accentuates the concert hall
strangeness of it all. Ditto with the twisted fairground melodica tune of ‘English
Rain’, where the pristine female vocals teeter between honey-toned sneer
and glacial croon, and the instrumentation builds a real sense of the playfully
macabre to back up the bitterness of the words.
The lilting sepia-toned gloom of ‘The Record Shop’ is hypnotic, matching the
lyrics of directionless loss, creating an entire world within its desolate notes
and words. The circular riff and grainy tones, alongside the living haunting
portrayed within the lyrics creates the mood of a less cartoonish version of
The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’, until the eventual slowdown and reprisal of the
mournful riff. Follow-on track ‘Neon Love Song’ turns a new leaf in its force of
life, however the mood remains one of determined desolation. The chugging
piano chords build momentum yet the vocals remain ghostly and slow, creating
a whirling void of sound that isn’t so much neon as a more vibrant and nuanced
shade of monochrome. The switch of mood in the bridge adds cascading
melodies to the equation, a moment of light and beauty, however even then The
Daydream Club seem dogged by their dark mood.
Title track ‘Overgrown’ is a hushed respite from the pervasive sense of crushing
emptiness in sound and melody, being a caress of wonderful melody, but lyrically
is a crystalline portrayal of a depressive mood and sense of loss. Assisting this is
the use of only the male singer in the verses, creating a faintly echoing sense of
isolation, the female vocals returning only within the chorus to create a ghostly
reflection of emotion.
The twin lifts of ‘Square’ and ‘In The Arms Of Another Day’ share a backbone of
fragile yet resilient acoustic guitar, and despite The Daydream Club’s habit of
creating melancholy in nearly any setting and context, there’s a welcome splash
of hopefulness in the way the lyrics seem to be making a statement, the personas

coming to terms with their own sense of being lost.
Piano-driven song ‘A Picture Of You’ is an exquisite depiction of the aching
melancholy familiar to anyone who has ever drifted mysteriously away from
someone important. Despite sounding close to a Hollywood musical number,
there’s a sincerity here that flows into every pore of the listener to take hold of
their heart and quite possibly their tears as well with its beautiful melody. Ditto
with the barely-perceptible yet impassioned plea of ‘Be With You Always’, as the
tender acoustic guitar follows the vocals melody with a sense of quiet care and
desperation.
To close is the sombre tones of ‘Fisherman’s Tales’, an instrumental track with a
melody that is so evocative it almost tells a narrative that echoes the mood of the
album as a whole: this is a set of stories not songs, each containing a fragment of
someone caught in a limbo world without any rhyme or reason to it.

All in all, ‘Overgrown’ is not a good-times album. However, what it is can only
be defined as transcendent. This is no particular genre, yet it does very little to
truly stand out, being unusual yet unobtrusive. The result is a sweet yet desolate
album that is truly breathtaking. No, it is not to everyone’s tastes, but I can only
say that those whose hearts it touches will be truly captured by its heart and
soul.

Author: Katie H-Halinski