First Impressions: Daydreamer by Molly Burch

A fair Friday afternoon it was until I tripped over a drum snare. I cursed the gated reverb, as one does, and overcompensated my balance. Instead of falling forward and planting my face on the floor, I spiraled backward—through time, as it turned out. I landed with a thud in 1986, when Madonna, Prince and a slew of unblemished pop stars made like modern Marilyns while gracing the era’s main silver screen, MTV. Drum machines, bass synths and staccato guitar riffs echoed across the windblown cable channel.

“What bloody hell is this?” I asked myself. (Yes, I speak like that. Sometimes.)

Molly Burch’s latest long-player, Daydreamer, is sure to take the breath away of anyone cognizant of the mainstream pop of the mid-1980s. Songs often sounded larger back then—and, no, it wasn’t just because of shoulder pads. The sonic concoctions consumed by that era’s generation were at once minimalistic yet over-the-top, synth-driven and echo-laden, with lyrics that looked both outward and inward. Dramatic with a capital D: That, in part, sums up much (though certainly not all) of what we heard. Which is to say, Daydreamer plays out as perhaps the greatest album Madonna never released—or is that Berlin? (Yes, I’m being hyperbolic.) “Heartburn,” one of my favorite songs from the 10-track set, is a great example:

The album came about when Burch, then living in Austin, visited her parents in LA and, while going through her boxed-up things to see what she could permanently part with, came across her old diaries. She was 13 (and younger) when she wrote them and going through some tough stuff—a crippling shyness that caused her to hide in her room most of the time, plus the onset of body dysmorphia. (Side note: As this NIH study shows, body dysmorphia is the fourth most common comorbidity among people with social anxiety.) The diaries led to self-reflection, as well as the realization that, though near 20 years removed from journaling about them, she still harbored many of the same feelings about herself.

While some songs, like “2003,” were inspired by those diaries, others were born during the stretch of self-reflection that followed their discovery. “Physical,” for instance, was inspired by her struggles with PMS, but is crafted in such a way that anyone struggling with health issues—be they mental or physical—should relate, while “Baby Watch My Tears Dry” tackles nagging self-doubts, “Unconditional” delves into unrequited love, and the heartfelt “Tattoo” expresses her love for her best friend from high school, who sadly took her life in 2009. The piano on the latter echoes Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself,” which fits.

According to the Bandcamp notes, Burch and producer Jack Tatum set out to incorporate a “cleaner” pop sound than her previous outings. It’s the difference between the smoky clubs of yore and the smoke-free clubs of today, in a sense, with a few more synths thrown into the mix. While we were out and about this morning, Diane mentioned that the songs reminded her of Carrie Bishop—a joke only fellow Veronica Mars fans will get. There’s some truth to that in a stylistic sense, but it’s less Lana Del Ray and more Madonna circa True Blue, with a few Lisa Lisa & the Cult Jam beats thrown in for good measure. 

Whether one experienced the ‘80s firsthand or missed out on the era’s teased hair and pastel blazers is beside the point. At its worst, the retro sound found on Daydreamer is eminently enjoyable. At its best, which is often, one will hear insights that help make sense of the messy essence that is modern life.