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It’s
hard to imagine a band more eager to please than The Daybirds. Their
last album, Turnstyle, clocked in at a whopping eighteen tracks,
only two of which merited skipping. And now we have the new Daybirds
EP, You Rock, which features not only seven worthy tracks, but
two MP3s, a music video, and an (unflattering) EPK. The only thing missing
is an audio commentary by the director.
The Daybirds specialize in making unapologetically happy and incredibly
catchy pop music, and You Rock is no exception. It doesn’t
have anything deep to say, but if you can hang with a band not afraid
to call a song “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” without being sarcastic,
then this is your bag. People looking for a radical departure from tradition
or growth from the band will not find it. Although they do tinker with
a dirtier sound, the songs underneath the noise are still the same old
Daybirds - extremely eager to get in your head and make you sing along.
And that really is the whole point of You Rock. The songs may
come off as too simple, but the more time you spend with them, the more
obvious it becomes that they were crafted to be exactly what they are.
I don’t have a clue what the lyrics to “Coming Down”
are supposed to mean, but I somehow memorized them without even thinking
about it. The EP is so easy to listen to that it ends before you know
it, leaving you with kind of a gypped feeling only alleviated by putting
the disk in for another spin. “Motorcar” and “Do it Again”
in particular seem to feel less like songs than really addictive pieces
of candy.
But there’s a dark side to the force. For one, you’re either
going to love You Rock, or you’re going to hate it…REALLY
hate it. And even if you are a Daybirds fan, these new songs are somewhat
lacking compared to the higher points of Turnstyle. While all
the songs are good, and some are definitely better than others, none
of them seem to reach as high as Turnstyle’s “All We Need
is Time” or “She Ran Away”, although “Mrs. Beautiful”
comes pretty close.
In the end, You Rock is exactly what it wants to be. It’s
chock full of the melodies, harmonies, and solid performances you’ve
come to either love or loathe from The Daybirds. They may be a guilty
pleasure, but I promise that if you listen to You Rock with open
ears, you will find something to like.
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