In Endless Awe & Agony

In Endless Awe & Agony

After two EPs and a mixtape, daine’s emo-tinged bedroom pop reaches full bloom on the Melbourne artist’s debut album. These tracks are as catchy as can be—with the singsong refrain of “PQC” resembling a taunting schoolyard chant—but daine’s lyrics are often considerably darker than the bubbly music around them. “Break my bones again/It won’t even matter,” they sing on that same song, while “Love Love (Love Love)” presents a stark self-portrait of loneliness and depression within buzzing, glitchy pop. After the mocking lyrics of “White Collar” call out privileged social climbers, “Product of Profit (P.O.P)” laments losing one’s selfhood in the pursuit of self-promotion against contrasting punctuation via glockenspiel and screams. Amid all the pop elements at play on the record, daine makes a point of dropping down to an acoustic strum more than once. Those quieter turns and daine’s soft, close singing only add to the confessional airs of these songs. Even when bristling distortion comes back into frame, it feels like we’re being let in on something personal and powerful.