Sorry, DE’WAYNE, but it’s actually nearly August; you might be a touch behind with this one, pal.
Bad jokes aside, there have been ample more valid reasons to criticise DE’WAYNE in the past. Like how, for instance, his music has routinely sucked and still amassed fawning attention for no good reason. Even among the early-2020s alt-pop set he felt limited, a chancer quarter-heartedly playing as a punk with barely any endurance. Stains wasn’t a good introduction in 2021 (and still isn’t to this day), nor was it anything approaching an interesting one. Perhaps that’s why, despite pushes to keep DE’WAYNE around that have remained noticeable, they’ve felt nothing close to as forceful as with his contemporaries.
Thus, a full, ground-up reconstruction is far from unwelcome. It’s not the only option—a clearer step into pop-punk with his I WANT YOU MORE THAN ANYONE WANTS YOU EP last year was alright—but if there’s a hope for longer-term success, it’s in something like this. Apparently, that entails inspiration from Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Parliament Funkadelic and plenty more bona fide legends, which barrels far past the point of what one might expect from an artist with such ‘illustrious’ past company as Chase Atlantic and grandson.
Naturally, the difference is screamed aloud and makes itself know from point-blank range. Stylistically, DE’WAYNE’s palette has been expanded many times over—shouting rock ‘n’ roll on lady lady; funk and disco on take a picture and forever; even a surprisingly commendable Sam Fender impression on sundays, mushier vocal delivery and all. In fact, it’s all done pretty well, albeit with the thinner, wiry filter of DE’WAYNE’s alt-pop base for support. With each song’s respective boundaries, there isn’t room for a truly big swing, hemmed further by production that isn’t willing to give up its compression just yet. In that way, it might actually be closer to purer late-2010s / early-2020s alt-pop, in its free-for-all approach to genre that serves to bring in fodder for each musical block.
That sounds more condemnatory than it actually should, though. june. is, overall, a decent bit of fun, largely thanks to the good sides of its musical repertoire vastly overcoming the…let’s say ‘restricted’ ones. By no means is DE’WAYNE embodying of a hollering bluesman, but lady lady’s melodic flair and absolute commitment to the bit rescues a lot. It’s similar on take a picture, a song that’s pretty much only got the Lenny Kravitz-aping waka-waka guitar going for it, but bloody hell, does it pull its weight! By far the biggest example in this category, however, is forever. The canned feel persists, even in the horns presumably designed to alleviate it (unsurprisingly when iDKHOW feature on this one), but as its lunge into funk and disco pulls together infuriatingly familiar swatches of pop ear-candy, it totally works.
Ultimately, the appeal of june. comes from how uncharacteristic of DE’WAYNE all of this is. The fact that prior issues are far from rectified yet can so easily be glossed over is a testament to what a working pop formula can get you, at the end of the day. It’s just so blatantly more fun and fluid, shallowness be damned. You easily find yourself getting into i’ll be there’s slinky soul throwbacks, or highway robbery’s big, blaring power-pop pumped up by gloss and fuzz, or the taut-yet-brawny shoutalong of prize fight. The ephemerality of it all isn’t of much consequence, either. It’s an area where DE’WAYNE’s whirlwind, devil-may-care approach to songwriting fits perfectly well, like with the romance scenarios painted on the title track and love raider.
Keeping all of that in mind, june. still might be too small and enclosed to be a great album, but it’s more of a step up than DE’WAYNE has ever indicated being capable of. Just in the realms of enjoyability, it creams anything he’s done before. As a statement of artistry, though, even its briefest peak into diversifying makes the idea of DE’WAYNE sticking around more worthwhile than anything he’s ever done. The mid-stage of his artistic growth is still radically different from what came before, and that’s absolutely wonderful to see. More like this, please.
For fans of: Lenny Kravitz, I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME, Twenty One Pilots
‘june.’ by DE’WAYNE is released on 30th July on Fearless Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
