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‘California dream pop’ is more or less what you’d think it is upon glancing the name. Big guitar parts, sultry vocals, fervent energy and lyrics soaked in nostalgia and hyperbole. On the surface it feels a little too much, but if that was the case we wouldn’t be giving Paper Days the time of day. They may fall into the dream pop vein of alternative music (an engorged behemoth unto itself) but they pepper their music with shades of harder rock and that indie rock/ shoegaze stuff all the Sydney kids are raging about.
Dynamic, exciting and steeped in nostalgia. The California dream pop of Paper Days takes a new form with their latest single Kind Guidance.
Paper Days hail from sunny California, in Carlsbad to be precise. The released their debut EP Playground Dreams last year not too long after forming the band and have received a respectable amount of love for it. Since then the band have dropped two more singles, Creature and Kind Guidance. To be completely honest the whole dream pop/ cute indie rock thing has been done to death over the last ten years or so, and while a song like Creature is pretty good as it is, in the grand scheme of things it falls short.
It’s the latest singe Kind Guidance that really sees Paper Days push themselves out of their comfort zone and shape a tune that has some weight to it. The pace of the track is always subject to change, it keeps you on your toes. Sometimes we’re trotting along to that familiar sunny indie rock guitar line, the next we’re sinking, somber tones before being lifted up by a rush of guitars. It completely shifts the dynamic of Kind Guidance, baiting you with the poppy first half before taking you for a ride for the more intense, and far more interesting second.
If you like bands like Ego or Blonde Tongues then you’ll take to Paper Days like Winnie the Pooh takes to honey; without second thought and with pure giggling joy. There are even elements of the recently deceased Snakadatyl. That feeling of perpetually wearing rose tinted glasses is something all dream pop bands share, and it’s something that runs rampant throughout Kind Guidance.
What keeps it interesting is the shift in vocals, at times crooning, other times frantic and in some cases outright shouting in the background. This may throw some people and may be a divisive element on the track, but for what it’s worth it’s another interesting flavour the band have thrown in and that in itself warrants merit.
It’ll be interesting to see where the California quartet go from here. One certainly hopes they keep the epic songwriting they have on Kind Guidance on future releases, which could may well bring them to our Aussie shores one day.
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