With his masterful new album, Daydreams, Effin shreds his flashbacks, warps them and threads them back together with a palette of faded melodies and sawtoothed basslines.
Rather than offering a safe retreat into vintage aesthetics, the album uses memory as a conduit for Effin’s wholly singular sound.
“Going all in on a concept such as daydreaming forced me to completely immerse myself in the theme, a challenge that ended up redefining the Effin sound and imagery for this era,” he explained in a press release. “Just like a dream, it pulls you in and throws your imagination for a thrill ride.”
From the opening seconds of its titular track, a collaboration with NGHTMRE, he sets the tone with deceptive sweetness. Airy vocals and gauzy pads swirl until a jarring lyric (“my daydreams, it’s more like nightmares”) tears the arrangement wide open.
“Dreams Come True” doesn’t blink either, pulsing with the confidence of an artist who’s crawled through self-doubt and come out with something solid in-hand. “Bringing Me Down” sharpens this contrast further, its delicate intro lurching into a bassline that snarls without losing musicality.
View the original article to see embedded media.
While most of the album is a solo expedition, “Ups and Downs” finds Effin linking up with EDM.com Class of 2025 artist Tape B, with whom he bends retro radio fuzz and tinctures of saxophones into a woozy trip through tasteful doses of each producer’s unmistakable sound design.
What makes Daydreams so effective isn’t genre subversion for its own sake, but a tight grip on mood and texture across all 12 tracks. There’s no sense of a random ID dump here. Even at its most experimental, the album never loses sight of its through-line, a kind of sun-dappled yearning that glows around the edges of every beat.
You can listen to Daydreams below.
Follow Effin:
X: x.com/EffinOfficial
Instagram: instagram.com/effinofficial
TikTok: tiktok.com/@effinofficial
Facebook: facebook.com/EffinOfficial
Spotify: spoti.fi/3lSkJVq
