Look, not everyone can be great. We’re midway through 2010 and there have been how many great releases? Five, maybe? The odds are just stacked against greatness. For everyone else jockeying for position, it’s how well they can fill that void between mediocrity and greatness that can score them some positive press, a few more fans. Teen Daze has everything I look for in a solid pop band. Conciseness, for example. When a band isn’t shooting for the stars, we don’t need an hour of material. It may sound superficial, but even for music geeks, things can be overdone, so beyond typical criticism, keeping it concise keeps focus on the music. Four More Years clocks in at just twenty-six and a half minutes. Another key component; don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Shifting the landscape is for the cream of the crop, while the rest are best served by keeping it simple while being interesting. That can be a tough task, since we’re trying to weed out the worthwhile music from the throwaway. Teen Daze? They do it! This is a large dose of electro dream pop, but they don’t try to get too fancy with the genre. Four More Years deals within that template and focuses on making sweetly melodic music that has a knack for sticking in your memory.
“No Regrets” almost definitely samples lines from the terrific show Friday Night Lights, in which Tim Riggins says things that are cool when Tim Riggins is saying them, such as, “Texas forever” and “No regrets.” Beyond that, Teen Daze supplements their samples with their own melody and gets woozy-but-effective results. Teen Daze keep the vocals low in the mix as to let the music control the experience, but just high enough to leave their melodic imprint. The group’s melodies are sparse and subtle, but it’s how they’re used that makes them work, and an ability to sell an underhanded melody is admirable. “Spin Around, Go Ahead” wakes up a little bit from its syrupy predecessors, letting the synth pulsate wildly for five minutes. As an electronic/dance song, it’s already above-average, which is a nice enough feat with all of the sameness going around in dance music. But it’s the careful manipulation of the samples that really sell the song. They fit the structure, add melody, and seem to have some warm emotion behind them. A lot of electronica sounds stale and robotic, but Teen Daze spins the song with a human touch that’s certainly refreshing. Again, they’re not doing anything terribly new; they’re just making interesting music within a given aesthetic.
“Gone for the Summer” is breezy, loose, and warm, making for perfect good-mood music. “Neon,” with its clear hook and straightforward rhythm, is probably the most pop-oriented song on the album. The production still buries the vocals, but allows the mix to come up a little and play a bigger role. “Around” serves as a prelude to “Spin Around, Go Ahead” as an upbeat electronica song. When I say “Neon” is probably the most pop-oriented, its top competition is “Around.” It’s certainly the most pop-structured and has the intention of delivering hooks, but the vocals aren’t quite up the task, which is where “Neon” edges it out. Ultimately, there are at least a couple of songs that demand to be put on repeat. “No Regrets” and “Spin Around, Go Ahead” meet that criteria with the palpable sheer joy and warmth that emanates from the music. Every track is a good one, each a well made, carefully crafted song. If a cohesive album could have harbored all of the feel-good vibes of those two ear worms, we might be dealing with something special. With the odds already stacked against Teen Daze, give them a ton of credit for stepping up and giving us all something worthwhile to listen to.
Track List:
1. Four More Years
2. Gone For The Summer
3. Neon
4. Around
5. No Regrets
6. Shine On, You Crazy White Cap (download here)
7. Saviour
8. Spin Around, Go Ahead
