REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Nightmares, Daily J, Dead Air

The Nightmares

Fire In Heaven

One thing that The Nightmares do exceptionally is drawing out where they want to end up. So much so that saying they want to be like Creeper is a take so cold, you’d get frostbite from merely brushing up against it. It might as well be objective fact at this point; for this new album, Alkaline Trio have been more openly cited as an influence, and keyboardist Eleanor Coburn gets a more active vocal role than simply propping things up out back. Coupled with the pre-existing goth-pop sensibilities, you’d hope that’d fill in the space around the promise borne from their debut Séance. After all, the aesthetic pieces are fully in alignment now.

And yeah, they are, but, like…you kinda need more than just that. There’s a reason that Creeper have ascended towards a generational talent that isn’t just easily replicable. The Nightmares will try, God love ‘em, but it also isn’t difficult to spot exactly where they’re falling short. Take songs like Siren Song or Run Away, so determined that they are to fly their pop-rock flags, but saddled with production that’s so cold and stiff, bordering on clinical. Considering this is an aesthetic that’s all about extreme melodrama, the aversion to going over the top does The Nightmare no favours. It makes them seem tired, if anything, as Dead Roses and Letting It All Go want to be exuberant with their shiny, glossy hooks and key twinkles, only to feel disappointingly capped mid-lift. That’s not even touching on the anti-meat song Blood On Your Hands, Coburn’s singular lead built on slow guitar reverberations that craters any momentum, regardless of how well-meaning it may be.

To its credit, Fire In Heaven never outright succumbs to its prospective funk. There’s enough style to The Nightmares to ensure that, or at least to give the impression of still somewhat courting gothic synthpop or darkwave to their cause. Nothing is a good as Evermore was on the last album, but slipping into wistful exhalation on Beneath Your Name and especially the closer Melancholy Waltz is a good a fit as it always was. Even with the less-than-stellar vocal chops of both Coburn and Adam Parslow, there’s something that can be done there. But when the poppier, upbeat fare feels almost alien in comprehension to The Nightmares’ skillset—or even as though it’s been wedged in out of obligation—the gulf is indescribably huge. In terms of how comfortably and naturally both styles read, it’s almost like two different bands.

And yet, Fire In Heaven isn’t all that much of a step down for The Nightmares. Despite their end goal being clearly demarcated, they’ve always been rough around the edges when getting there, and here, it’s no different. It’s also the second album in a row where that’s the case, though, even with what seems like a conscious retooling to be more than what they were. It hasn’t really paid off, more so shuffling the variables and averaging out to be the same, if not a little lower. It’d be nice if The Nightmares could get there in the end, but with as high above their weight class as they’re punching, the effort will have to be borderline inconceivable.

For fans of: Bright Eyes, Bleak Soul, Depeche Mode

‘Fire In Heaven’ by The Nightmares is released on 14th February on Venn Records.

---

Daily J

Scatterbrains

Daily J released their debut album Venus Ate Mars towards the very end of 2020. To put that into perspective, this sunny, temperate indie-pop album was released in November at the height of The COVID Times, like Daily J simply didn’t have the heart to scrap it when every element conspired against them at once. (Yes, they are from New Zealand so it would’ve still come out for their summer, but for us Northern Hemispherers, the point still stands.) Not that it makes too much difference for yet another proponent of hazy indie and psych-pop from that corner of the world, with maybe, like, the tiniest slip of Vampire Weekend to aid with something more. Though when the results fall on the spectrum of ‘plaintively pleasant’ to ‘full-on narcoleptic’, what ‘more’ that there is is up in the air.

And naturally, for a region that floods and over-eggs its developed scenes like there’s no tomorrow, Scatterbrains is effectively the same. Daily J follow the methodology to the letter—here’s a brand of indie-pop that’s blissed-out in spirit, but coated in the plastic film that leaves it feeling cold and incapable of real lushness. Like the rest of the umpteen-thousand Antipodean indie bands who want to be Tame Impala (evidenced most blatantly with some vocal impressions on For Your Leisure), Daily J seem to fall at the first hurdle by hamstringing their range by such an amount. The canned whistle on Sunday Stitches is an immediate red flag, cut from the same cloth as OneRepublic’s I Ain’t Worried for pre-packaged, sterile ‘enjoyment’. Fortunately, Daily J haven’t excised their dignity to become another enterprise for churning out all-purpose soundtrack bites, but they can still fall far. It doesn’t get worse on here than Happy Slides, with its drained tone and quasi-hip-hop lean in the drums that bring to mind Hard Life when it’s not wanted. It’s never wanted, for the record.

More commonly, though, Scatterbrains wears an inoffensive drabness that refuses to stimulate for good or ill. Particularly in a suite of tracks towards the end that all approach a five-minute runtime, it’s a case of stretching out this antiseptic, inorganic material well past its natural resting point. It’s also where instrumental colours become dulled, not helped by all manner of blaring, piercing synth tones trying to engineer some kind of response. At least a song like Someone To Cry About can kajigger all of that into a vaguely ‘60s-ish calm, throwing in a saxophone that might carry the single most fertile tone on the entire album. The rest, however, is rarely that lucky. It too heavily falls victim to the extraneous clutter that Daily J heap onto it, far from ideal for a sound whose primary quality is being lightweight.

At the same time, there’s just no impetus to get worked up, or care at all. Scatterbrains is such a faceless piece of its own musical landscape, unwilling to break rank for even a second lest that means its comfort in stasis is disrupted. It’s the exact same issue that comes with a lot of the regionalised scenes from this part of the world—indie; garage-punk; metalcore; there’s so much of all of it that’s functionally (if not entirely) identical. And when you reach that point, and any effort to do more is too much, is there any point in getting invested? Considering that Daily J themselves have ensured their own album evaporates from memory the second it’s over, it seems that they have a crystal-clear answer.

For fans of: Tame Impala, The Drums, The Grogans

‘Scatterbrains’ by Daily J is released on 7th February.

---

Dead Air

Elements

As far as musician origin stories go, Rich Greenbury’s tale of being plucked from the audience at a Foo Fighters show in Croatia to fill in for the late Taylor Hawkins on Wheels is certainly a noteworthy one. Perhaps it was a cosmic sign of real, burgeoning stardom? After all, not any old rando gets that kind of opportunity out of the blue. And when you listen to Dead Air, you almost feel that moment catalysing a band who’ve got their eyes set firmly on the very top of the food chain. For all intents and purposes, they play meat-and-potatoes rock music not too unlike the band who started it all for them, except with a lot more flair and breadth of vision. If it’s another dollop of radio filler you’re anticipating, Elements is a fine tonic to wash that away with.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that Queens Of The Stone Age appear to be one of Dead Air’s key touchstones. They steer clear of the experimental extremes that already leave Josh Homme and co. as strange patrons of the radio-rock banner, but Love And Patience especially works off the same wiring—a big, dusty, masculine rock strut, unafraid of the errant edges it might leave sticking out. It’s a fitting extender into Dead Air’s love of ‘90s rock’s household names, which coalesces into a general vibe rather than individual bouts of hero worship. Violently Blue is the closest they come to that—and, therefore, the weakest—with less of their defiant personality in its grunge revivalism. It’s a clear outlier, though, compared to the punk and alt-rock basis of Die’s frankly incredible hook, or the meaner bassline, supreme vocal harmonies and alt-metal visage of Breathe, almost like a hybrid of Helmet and Alice In Chains.

And yet, for the many names they keep in their pocket, Dead Air aren’t the flighty copycats that they may appear. Even if there’s a bit more of their own connective tissue needed, Elements remains its own thing. There’s no getting past Reuben Moonasar’s vocals and how domineering they are, the sort of guttural yet insanely melodic performance that’s blessed with a tone unique to rising alt-rock. Singlehandedly, he can bring an added catharsis to Dead Air’s abstraction, inspired by the estrangement from his father that’s more an emotional engine room than a direct storytelling device. You feel that attrition coming through everywhere, from growling bass and guitar tones to an unquestionable rawness in the mix. All the while, there’s the tenacity to be the biggest band in the world that Dead Air convincingly wear.

It certainly feels possible. Elements’ lineage is from an era of rock music whose timelessness comes from its passion, replicated by Dead Air with faultless efficiency and acumen. Even on a four-track EP, the propensity for hammering style and substance is clearcut, and hopefully capable of some real drive. Dead Air have already had a bit of viral notice with their previous single Teeth Grinder, and it’d be a shame to see things cap out for them at that. Ideally, we should be hearing stories in a couple of decades’ time about some kid in a European amphitheatre with a sign saying “Rich, if you need a break, I can drum?”, and forging their own musical legacy from there. It’d only be right, wouldn’t it?

For fans of: Queens Of The Stone Age, James And The Cold Gun, Himalayas

‘Elements’ by Dead Air is released on 7th February on Fly Tip Records.

---

Words by Luke Nuttall