Daisy Brain – 'Down'
A song dripping in 90s nostalgia, Daisy Brain’s ‘Down’ could be the title track of classic teen movie.
Daisy Chain, aka Will Tse, is back with another single from his upcoming EP, Disconnected Happy, set for release on April 1. With guitars dripping in distortion, a bass line that confidently walks out a melody, and crashing drums to propel you into a chorus – ‘Down’ has it all.
Clearly influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Radiohead, Tse takes up a well-trodden indie-grunge trope: putting a surprisingly happy melody over sad and frank lyrics. The result here, however, is the creation of an instant classic. It’s the type of song you could (and should) play at a party, just to sneak that little bit of grunge into the playlist that still gets people hyped.
The song finds Daisy Chain parsing a pervasive sense of loneliness with a prevailing feeling of anxiety and depression (heavy themes for something I’m saying you could play at a party, I know). Tse explains that the kind of anxiety and depression he’s talking about is the kind that “is innate and subtle, where it penetrates your daily life like a low drone, slowing you down and draining you.” And that’s what’s genius about this song. You don’t notice the creeping negativity, and you find yourself screaming along to “I feel like shit all the time, and I don’t know why” before you ever notice that this isn’t a feel-good anthem. Tse has impressively managed to conjure the very intangible thing he’s trying to convey.
Those of us with a soft spot for dirty, grungy guitars will enjoy the distorted dissonance of the song’s high-points as they’re juxtaposed with the acoustic, power-chord driven verses. It’s so easy to imagine this as a truly magical moment live – the lines are unequivocally singable, and the melody is full of hooks. It’s a song firmly rooted in its genre, but it’s strong enough to stand on its own.
Words by Izzy Rowley
