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Photo: Cole Ferguson

Less than a decade ago, the indie scene was overrun with dirty sneakers only cleaned by tears and raindrops coupled with a fanbase too clouded with the temporary to garner any real sense of a brighter tomorrow. While those acts have cemented a legacy, weepy just isn’t really working for the kids these days. Perspective, in a lot of ways, is shaping their mindset and musical preferences.

Enter almost monday, a group that illustrates perspective as soon as you come across their name on a flyer or album cover—whether it's the notion of savoring freedom or the opportunity that’s perpetually in front of us is up for interpretation. What can’t be argued, however, is the incessant, almost rabid sense of an upward trajectory that seems to follow this group around. The San Diego natives are sun-kissed in more than a couple of senses, with their first full-length LP, DIVE, only cementing that idea further.

The group has gathered a fairly sizable following, despite only a handful of studio releases and their bubbly attitude at live shows as citations for their success. Vocalist Dawson Daughtery ebbs and flows with ease around the waves that the rest of the band crashes down around him. There’s room for all three of these artists to flex their unique muscles throughout the project, citing a sense of collective individualism as a central tenet of the album. Lead singer Daughtery describes the record as “a snapshot of us as individuals and as a collective.” His description of the project is apt, both in its brevity and clarity. There are bits and pieces of a lot of different things scattered around here.

Tracks like “never enough” present as borderline psych-pop, where they’re almost immediately contrasted with a far hazier, surf-rock ballad in the track “sunburn.” There’s a uniform sound with a diverse set of influences apparent throughout everybody present here. Heralded by Simon Oscroft, who has worked with indie superstars like The Killers and MGMT, the group seems to be poised to nudge the needle in whatever direction they want to go.

Former surfer bros turned rockstars is a pretty common trajectory on the West Coast, but it's one that’s rarely as evident as it is here. There are a lot of elements that in more irresponsible hands could conflict with one another, but almost monday seems to have some startling balance despite an ethos that would try and prove you otherwise. Seeped in UV rays while seemingly siloed on an island all to themselves, there’s really no wrong turn for the group to take and their debut album proves that.

Listen to DIVE below: