Daily J - Scatterbrains (2025)

There’s an unmistakable breeziness guiding Daily J’s songs. “Sunday Stitches” opens Scatterbrains with a happy-go-lucky whistled hook that’s echoed by chiming guitar lines and a springy rhythm section. Singer/guitarist Jayden Paul sings with an affable contentment that suits the Auckland act’s flashbacks to enduring 2000s indie touchstones like Phoenix and The Strokes. Flanked by his brothers Jonny (bass) and Jesse (synth), Paul leads the band through catchy tunes that are as likely to sneak in a floaty psychedelic bridge (“Cheap Tequila Sunrise”) as they are a sax solo (“Someone to Cry About”). Especially dreamy is the romantic centrepiece “Happy Slides”, on which Paul imagines living in a sunny beach house with the song’s subject. And on “Go with the Flow”, he sings to a special someone about “walking on the bright side of life”. That phrase neatly encapsules Daily J, who mostly shrug off melancholy to highlight the happier moments that can be enjoyed with the right person—and the right soundtrack.