Who doesn’t love a little indie dream pop to start the year? With just a little cloudy grey coloring, Stray Fossa’s “These Days” song makes you forget about the Jackson Browne penned Nico requiem of the same name and gives you a whole new way to look at those two words.

With an insistent song with an appropriately adjusted rhythm section driving the whole track along, the layers of harmony and droplets of echo and reverb-effected guitar melody give the
listener the feeling of lull and groove. One can see a cloudy sky outside of
Stray Fossa’s windshield, but we are also along for the ride, being happily entertained by the
Charlottesville, Virginia group’s vocal lines. Is their something slightly sinister in their
sweetness? See their opening line:

“Never thought that I could be so cold/ try me
after all the rest have all gone home/ die…”

The violin feels and sounds like we are passing by the more elegant days of chamber
pop reminiscent of Scott Walker. The song swirls off another exit as “These Days” wisps by with its four and half minute sweetness, and we are off on another adventure. Where are we off to? Perhaps we can look to Stray Fossa’s next effort for some
guidance.