Multi-volume music releases can make for a heady affair, bringing to mind notions of prog-rock expansiveness and obscure conceptual themes. But not so with Volume I: Deja Vu, the initial release of a three-volume project from Tacoma indie-poppers Modern Daze. The EP highlights the group’s penchant for immediately accessible grooves and hooks, while also showcasing some musical chops upon repeat listens. It’s a fuzzy, dreamy record that simultaneously sounds like a catalogue of fond memories and a planned escape to an idealized future. Today, Dan’s Tunes is excited to exclusively premiere the EP a week before it’s available on streaming platforms. To pre-save the album on Spotify, click here.

The record opens strong with “Fireflies,” a tune initially punctuated with an off-beat piano riff from Russel Groves that quickly opens up to jangly guitars and a groove as solid as granite from bassist Matthew Lester and drummer Taylor Murrey. While the song introduces listeners to the pleasantly hazy, carefree vibes pervasive of the entire record, there’s an undercurrent that belies that feel-good sheen as vocalist Zachary White croons “You want to live well in your personal hell” just before the song’s chorus. It’s oddly fitting in this time of a global health crisis that has many of us trapped in our homes — and our own heads.

Follow-up song and lead single “Somnambulance” is no less catchy and leans further into the beachy, easygoing feel of the EP, complete with percussive cowbell accents in the verses and a spacy guitar line that conjures Innerspeaker-era Tame Impala. The title of the track, a synonym for sleepwalking, proves to be a perfect fit for the tune’s buoyant, floating mood that stays anchored by the four-on-the-floor groove of the group’s rhythm section. It’s a song that, in less capable hands, could come off as a bit cheesy, but instead showcases the group’s ability to effectively meld elements from disparate styles like the atmospheric psych guitars in the song’s verses and the calypso-inspired rhythms near the end of the track.

While these songs are indicative of the strong foundational sound of the EP, later tracks struggle to measure up to the same sure-footed, but effortless, sound. The penultimate track, “Barcelona,” leads off with a pleasantly fuzzy bass line before giving way to a guitar melody from six-string slinger Travis McCulloch that’s equal parts surf rock and indie chic. That same guitar line melds wonderfully with White’s falsetto in the track’s chorus, but the song ultimately proves a bit repetitive and suffers from some awkward structure, like the sequenced synth line in the bridge that feels like it was lifted from a clubby trance tune into a dream-pop song. 

Similarly, closer “Deja Vu” succumbs to the platitudes of the genre, leaning heavily on themes of drugged-out sexual encounters with lyrical cliches to match: “Exploring you, exploring me, we were so crazy.” The song’s expansive half-time chorus provides an energetic burst and a strong sense of melody while nicely showcasing White’s pipes, but the track then repeats the same verse, ping-ponging between the two parts until the song’s end. It might be that the tune’s weaker points are highlighted given that it closes the record and serves as the title track. However, topping some of the other tracks on the record would be a tough task for any group, and that’s a testament to the songwriting on the EP as a whole.

Despite these lost threads, other songs, like “California,” exude bright, summery tones that provide stylistic continuity via the chorus’s floating guitar lines and White’s confident vocal delivery. One might think the laid-back vibe is a little on the nose for a tune named after the Golden State — evoking the somewhat tired imagery of swaying palm trees and sun-drenched beaches — but the refrain in the chorus flips that interpretation on its head, with White singing, “Never goin’ back, California!” Not a bad trick for a song that sounds like it could have been recorded in SoCal. 

As a whole, Deja Vu would be welcome at any time as a springboard into warmer, longer days and lazy nights—and it just so happens Modern Daze has delivered an all-too-welcome sonic vacation at a time when many of us can’t take full advantage of so many of the wonderful things summer here brings, like seeing people we love and spending time in outdoor spaces that make the PNW feel like home. Taking a break from our current isolation often feels like an unattainable luxury, but with Deja Vu, listeners can escape (at least mentally) for the duration of the EP’s five tracks and rest easy knowing the record will still be around — whenever quarantine ends — to serve as the soundtrack of memories we’ve yet to make.

Take a listen to the full EP below, and don’t forget to pre-save Volume I: Deja Vu on Spotify.