Release Date: March 31, 2023
Genre: Various
Label: SharpTone Records Every once in a while, an artist or band comes along that obliterates the mold of what is expected within their "defined" genre, and Seattle's alternative outfit Dead Lakes just that with their long-awaited debut studio album, daydreamer. Dead Lakes is made up of vocalist Sumner Peterson, drummer Chon Adam, bassist Cody Hurd, and guitarist Coby Rossi and blend the stylings of pop, post-hardcore, emo, and rock into an exhilarating and unique mix. The band's previous singles before the band's genre-defying EP New Language (2020) were much heavier in nature than what they present on daydreamer.
Dead Lakes' debut album was designed by the quartet to be consumed front-to-back in one sitting while on a solo nighttime drive and challenges their listeners to take a chance on themselves in the name of personal discovery -which is what the twelve tracks touch upon thematically in the lyrics. The record runs parallel with the ride of life; the gut-wrenching moments, the self-doubts, relationships, vices, and the feeling of euphoria.
The twelve tracks that form daydreamer see the band's love of various styles incorporated more blatantly than ever before. The band delved into its creative possibilities and reached for the highest potential they could achieve with the brand-new album. The songwriting evolution that is on display on daydreamer is unlike anything in their previous sets of work. Additionally, daydreamer was produced by Canadian music producer Sam Guaiana, known for some of his recent works with bands like Silverstein, Vilivant, The Devil Wears Prada, Like Pacific, and Between You & Me, to name a few. Sonically, Dead Lakes sees the Seattle-based band draw further into the maturity of their songwriting. Each track on their debut transitions immediately into the next as the record plays, as the twelve tracks are one bigger, deep story. Continuing to push away from their overall heavier sound, they've found themselves with this "heavy pop" or "heavy boy band" sound that the band self-describes themselves as. It's more so a post-hardcore base that sees the amalgamation of elements from pop and hip-hop intertwined throughout the nearly forty-seven-minute runtime. Dead Lakes are in the same vein as some bands that have hit the scene in the last couple of years like Rain City Drive, VRSTY, and Thousand Below.
daydreamer demonstrates a creative decision in Dead Lakes' constantly evolving songwriting that is absolutely going to pay off for the band in the end. This is just the start of a previously blossoming career for the band. I’m exceedingly interested to see what the members of Dead Lakes concoct for their future music releases.
You can now stream daydreamer here.
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