Your mileage may vary, but pop music should explode on contact. Let the melodies glide into the stratosphere on a Hypercolor rocket, sure, but there also needs to be a collision of sight and sound. Dummy's "Daffodils" is a groovy refinement of the LA band's influences — namely, the unclassifiable and impossibly cool pop music of Stereolab, Broadcast and Silver Apples — set against trebly guitar jangle, droning organ, slyly funky drums and conversational vocals between Nathan O'Dell (formerly of the Baltimore dream-pop band Wildhoney) and Emma Maatman. "Daffodils" has a gelatinous-yet-static quality: It drones in place even as it mutates in real time — especially in the last 30 seconds, when a squeal of feedback announces the deliriously loud noise-pop denouement.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

300x250 Ad

300x250 Ad

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Donate