Cayucas

On their last album, Bigfoot, Cayucas debuted in a way that defied their namesake, the sleepy seaside town of Cayucos, CA. As listeners fell in love with its shimmering west coast vibes, Zach Yudin watched his bedroom recording project transform into a band that toured the world almost overnight, all while his songs raced across the radio. But as Zach and his twin brother and bandmate, Ben, went in to create what would become their new album, what it all came back to was something more personal. While they now call Los Angeles home, they drew from the nostalgia of their childhood growing up in Davis, CA; the nostalgia in their music that is as much about a place they've never been (that maybe no one's been to) as any actual experience. It was a freedom to imagine, to explore ideas. And it was that wandering imagination and a punchy California dream that eventually grew to become Dancing at the Blue Lagoon.

While their sun-drenched, jangly, sometimes melancholic sound is quintessentially Californian, the album is very much their California. It's the sound of kids from the suburbs who fantasize in Technicolor, whose view of the Golden State is its own form of idealism. You can hear it loud and clear in the easygoing confidence throughout on the crisp, backbeat-driven "Hella" or as "Moony Eyed Walrus" takes surf guitar into fragmented, unpredictable places. The impossibly catchy and heartbreaking "Backstroke" is a Murakami-inspired detective story, neo-noir that is equal parts stylization and gut-level emotion.