Surf Rockers DRY REEF Share a Track-by-Track Breakdown of Their Breezy New Record ‘Daychange’ [Exclusive]

Philadelphia’s Dry Reef are all about the waves and positivity. What are we talking about, you ask? The four-piece are long-term friends who met in early high school, and who play breezy-sounding beach rock that aims to strike a chord with the younger generations of today. Their music speaks to the fears and stresses of young people living in today’s busy world with lyrics that highlight a 24-year-old mired in the rat race of early adulthood and social media.

The group just released their latest record Daychange grab/stream a copy here, a collection of songs that attempt to encourage listeners to find their own peace amongst all the chaos around them. The band has been compared to Slightly Stoopid and Dirty Heads, but with soulful vocals similar to that of Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon fame. Here, the gents offer us a track-by-track summation of the new album Daychange, released through Free Dive Records.

01. “Harmony”
– “Harmony” is a dedication song to our commitment to music, which is why we opened the project with it. It’s simple, “feel it now it’s a part of me.” No matter how many reasons to give up I feel during the verse, the jubilant chorus comes right in to interrupt that train of thought.

“Come Away” is an easy-listening track and you can hear it here for yourself.

02. “Come Away”
– “Come Away” speaks on the isolation complex I have to just drop off the face of the earth and go to the mountains. The weight of the world gets so heavy I feel like I need that. Luckily, I used this song to take that adventure instead.

03. “Sweet”
– I tend to get caught up in the beauty and wonder of the world, the sunlight moving through leaves and the feel of the grass at night can fill me up with so much joy it feels like I’m in a dream sometimes. The conflict comes when the real world (finances, professional relationships, materialism) can make everything so cruel and dark. This song is about the struggle to know which side to listen to.

04. “The Wash”
– “The Wash” is an admission to myself that I’m constantly living in an impending sense of doom. Like the world will swallow me whole at any moment. I’ve been trying to let go of that, and this song is that conversation with myself. I feel like a lot of us feel this way, even if we can’t admit it.

05. “Car Keys”
– This song is a bit of comedic relief. Using a situation as mundane as losing your car keys, Charles takes you on an upbeat sonic journey through letting go of all the small annoyances in life.

06. “Start It Up”
– “Start It Up” captures this moment of our lives in music most accurately. It is about being overwhelmingly excited about the future and pushing forward without worrying too much about where this all will end up.

07. “Saucier”
– “Saucier” is about wanting to spend every minute with a girl you are falling for. It’s a jubilant track about being so enthralled with someone you want to just “chill up in the kitchen and be her ‘Saucier’.”

Let’s “Start It Up” with this video from Daychange.

08. “Nowhere Fast”
– This is about learning what it takes to be truly in love with someone. You have to let go of all of your innate self-hate and insecurity and really love yourself – or else you will be asking someone else to do that for you. It was such a simple beautiful realization for me, I had to write a song about that – and the girl of my dreams who helped me get here.

09. “Bliss”
– I wrote this song nine years ago, I was fifteen. I didn’t know what I was writing about, but we have kept playing it since. It was during this album that I realized it is a message to myself now from that naive fifteen years old, saying “don’t give up it’ll be alright.” I try to give a lot of songs that same “futuresight,” just letting the lyrics fall into the melody and wait for the meaning to show itself. Like I’m a kid again who doesn’t overthink a single thing.

10. “Another Day”
– “Another Day” is the song that was playing in my head from the start of this album. It is filled with eagerness for my life’s path to become clear, and frustration that it hasn’t yet. I go back and forth between peace and chaos throughout the verses until finally the end we all chant a peaceful mantra “I’m waking up.” We didn’t know why we liked that part so much, but as the close of the album, it feels like a call to everyone who feels lost that we are in this with them.

Check out a performance of the band’s song “Swim” at Sofar in Washington D.C. from this past June.