Dayglow Talks Time, Acceptance, and Finding the Things That Matter in Self-Titled Album

We’re in a peculiar time of year here in New York: after the briefest previews of autumn, the second summer is in full swing. Many dread this encore, wanting nothing more than to shuck the ACs for sweaters–myself included. This year, however, I’m trying to slow down and take the time to rejoice in summer’s last hurrah: I admire the trees in the park before they shed their color, take the long way home after work, try to savor the things I’ll miss most when the weather turns icy and unforgiving. Reflect on how the first nine (?!) months of the year have seemed to fly by as the seasons metamorphose. With the release of the long-awaited Dayglow, my second summer reminiscence has its perfect score.

Sloan Struble, a.k.a. Dayglow, first captured the larger internet’s attention at age eighteen with his third single, “Can I Call You Tonight?” followed by the release of his first full-length album, Fuzzybrain. Since then, Struble has produced three more albums as Dayglow, but this one, he says, is his true debut. Back with the self-titled LP, Dayglow “is finally entering the world in its purest form with clarity and confidence” whilst still keeping the magic fans have come to know and love.

The record’s opener is a reimagined “Mindless Creatures”–the first single Struble ever released as Dayglow. The remaster is one of his best songs; you can hear how the band has developed, sonically and lyrically: the production feels fuller, the verses have matured by miles, but it retains that typical Dayglow charm. The music is nostalgic and wistful, almost Wallows-esque, perfectly complementing Struble’s self-reflection; he talks of the dissatisfaction and apathy that comes with setting impossible expectations for yourself as he sings, “If only I could just see myself / Thought I’d believe it / Thought I’d be someone else by now.” “Every Little Thing I Say I Do,” the album’s lead single, expands on this idea of the crushing weight of perfectionism but takes a more playful approach: “Every little thing I say I do /… and every little word I say I mean.” The impossibility of the assertion is meant to poke fun; you don’t realize the absurdity of your own expectations until you look back in hindsight.

Dayglow for Spotify.

Time is a clear overarching theme in the album: time running out, moving too slow, moving too fast. Dayglow’s second single, “Cocoon,” is a tune about missed chances, growing pains, and moving on (“You’re already gone / Nothing will ever be the way that it was again / Nothing will ever be the same.”), while “What People Really Do” trades the typical indie-rock style for something a little grungier as Struble laments about the monotony of everyday life. Struble’s balance of sarcasm and earnestness is at its best here; the lyrics are playful and biting, yet at its core, the song’s sentiment rings true.

“Nothing Ever Does!!!” chronicles the irony of artistry–chaos and how anxiety can start to rule your life the longer you’re in the industry, but you need to sit in that space for your work. There’s a fine line between self-destructing and searching for inspiration, and Struble walks it in this track: “To make impactful things, you have to feel them deeply. And that’s the burden you bear as an artist,” he tells 1883 Magazine.

If possible, Struble looks further inward with “This Feeling,” a letter from his younger self; the song is a beautiful reflection on losing sight of the things that matter as an artist, underscored by dreamy, melancholic guitar riffs and piercing percussion. “Silver Lining,” the only love song on the album, is coming-of-age yearning in its highest form: “How she pulls me in / Pulls me over / Like mescaline / Like, holy roller.”

“Broken Bone” is an apt closer for the record, another relic from Dayglow’s early days on going back to the basics to search for the things that really matter. The final lyric is beautiful in its simplicity: “Oh, I wanna be, now / Like a flower growing through the concrete.” It’s the last picture we’re left with; Struble’s final message is sanguine–hope persists.

The self-titled record is a labor of love and a charming (re) debut as Struble steps into the limelight as a new, true Dayglow. You can now listen to it on all streaming platforms and catch Dayglow on his tour in North America this fall.