Stream: Day Wave, ‘We Try But We Don’t Fit In’

Kevin Bronson on June 12th, 2015

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Oakland-based songwriter Jackson Phillips is one half of the electro-pop duo Carousel by day, and creates sun-kissed, melancholy indie-pop under the moniker Day Wave by night. Day Wave has only been Phillips’ alter ego since the fall of 2014, but thanks to the singles “Drag” and “Total Zombie,” he has already been generating quite the buzz. He’s garnished attention from indie radio, including KEXP and KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, as well as online supporters propelling Day Wave to the No. 1 artist on Hype Machine before he even released his fourth single, “We Try But We Don’t Fit In.” The ’80s nuances that are prominent with Carousel are still present in Day Wave’s lo-fi, echoing pop, especially “Drag,” a pretty piece of woe-is-me that could have been taken straight out of a John Hughes movie. “We don’t fit in,” laments Phillips in the new single, which, not surprisingly, now finds him among a legion of kindred spirits.

— Jessica Shalvoy

||| Stream: “We Try but We Don’t Fit In” and “Drag”