For the most part, Laura Loeters and Gregor Sonnenberg AKA The Day, who live and work in Antwerp and Hamburg respectively, make bright and breezy dream pop music that is easy to embrace, memorable on its first listen. It certainly isn’t obvious from the unabashed loveliness of the melodies here that The Kids Are Alright was borne from a doleful loneliness brought on by the pandemic and the cabin fever of its all too testing lockdown periods.
Loeters’ breathy, often wistful sounding vocals are the star of the show, complementing perfectly the wintry soundscapes painted by Sonnenberg as her backdrop. Despite that, some of the songs here – ‘Empty‘ and ‘Sidelines‘ in particular – feel like a joyous cruise down an American highway in an open top car on a hot summer day. Sonnenberg’s guitar work here is explicitly appealing, at times like Beach House doing Fleetwood Mac‘s classic 1987 album Tango In The Night.
Oddly enough, The Kids Are Alright actually opens with arguably the least commercial track on the record, in ‘98‘, though I can see why they chose to do so, for it certainly has that aura of mystique about it, which is beguiling enough to draw you in for more, before ‘Nemesis‘ blithely highlights the duo’s arresting pop credentials.
Going to back to the point about loneliness being a theme on this, The Day’s second full length release, if you haven’t already worked it out, that doesn’t mean it’s in any way a downbeat release. Far from it, in fact, despite some bleak lyrics, although you could also reason that they are “bleak with a yearning optimism.” Take the previously mentioned ‘Sidelines‘ for example, which contains the passage “Maybe this is just a phase / Maybe I’m in a daze / I’m not even close yet / But I know someday I can hold my own / Still I’m lost but I’m not alone / Nothing is ever set in stone / Guess I have to face it / Oh I know someday I can hold my own” Loeters’ prose bullish in its refusal to accept mediocrity, and its intent to somehow achieve, even though she isn’t sure what, exactly, those aspirations are, nor, for that matter, how she proposes to go about realising them.
‘Parasite‘, a slower number, is like T’Pau decided to try their hand at dream pop, and the similarly nonchalant ‘June‘ brings shades of Cocteau Twins with it, which is always endearing, but in summation, The Kids Are Alright is simply a blissful, easy on the ear record that’s not difficult to love, quickly.
