Summer’s not over yet, at least according to alt-rock duo The Driver Era, who recently released their third album “Summer Mixtape.” The album serves as an ode to the season, highlighting Rocky and Ross Lynch’s songwriting capabilities and instrumental prowess.
There’s a lot to unpack, with the songs varying widely in style and quality. Pop, rock, EDM, synthpop and even a bit of reggae are found throughout the tracklist. However, the album as a whole feels like it is torn between wanting to be a club album and wanting to be a beach album.
As a result, it feels like the brothers’ experimental period, where they begin to play around with different sounds. Their past two albums, “X” and “Girlfriend” were rock and pop-oriented works, whereas “Summer Mixtape” integrates the aforementioned EDM, reggae and synthpop.
Tracks like “Keep Moving Forward” and “Back to You” are perfect examples of this. “Keep Moving Forward” is loud, upbeat and disco-infused, which is a major departure from their past two efforts. On the other hand, “Back to You” is heavy, driven by loud guitars with a highly experimental synth beat under it.
This experimentation, though, is very hit-or-miss. Tracks like “Fantasy,” a sexually-charged and acoustic-guitar-driven song, are a more lowkey departure from heavy electric guitars and drumlines to a more relaxed, yet sexual song. On the other hand, though, we have “Turn the Music Up,” another song arguably made for a club atmosphere but feels very out of tune and messy due to their trial run at EDM.
One thing that never falters throughout the album, however, is the honesty present in the lyrics. “Endlessly” talks about the confusion and middle ground between wanting to be with someone and wishing you’d never met in the first place. “Malibu” is about fondly looking back on summer memories you wouldn’t mind returning to. Lastly, “The Money” is a song about the choice between love and wealth, ultimately choosing love in the end.
Overall, the Lynch brothers have put out an honest album that expresses their thoughts and feelings whilst taking their sound to new, more creative places.
