Tropical Popsicle // Dawn Of Delight
With a name like Tropical Popsicle, I really wanted to like this band.
With a name like Tropical Popsicle, I really wanted to like this band. I thought Dawn of Delight would be summery, joyous, and resplendent in its saccharine brilliance. I thought wrong. Unfortunately, much like an actual ice lolly, once you’ve had a lick of Tropical Popsicle, you realise that the first taste is all there is to it - sure it’s nice, but it ends up totally transparent by the end. It seems like too many bands, this one included, get so bogged down in creating that ‘perfect vibe’, that they forget to write any songs. Dawn of Delight ticks the psychedelic resurgence box so hard that they may as well have called the record Surrealistic Pillow 2013 Edition and be done with it. But they didn’t, and Dawn of Delight is boring because so many people have done it better. I’ve got no problem with the sixties vibe, but Tropical Popsicle face the problem that Tame Impala and Foxygen can write interesting music, whereas there’s so little development on most of the tracks on Dawn of Delight that you can completely zone out after the first 20 seconds of each, with fair a confidence that nothing will have changed by the end. It’s incredibly passive music, and maybe it’s just because I don’t take drugs, but the repetitive nature is just too monotonous to provoke any reaction. But even with that said, much like the aforementioned ice lolly, you’ll still probably grab Tropical Popsicle at the first sight of sun, sit outside with it, and be deliriously happy for a few minutes. 6/10 Alex Throssell
With a name like Tropical Popsicle, I really wanted to like this band. I thought Dawn of Delight would be summery, joyous, and resplendent in its saccharine brilliance. I thought wrong. Unfortunately, much like an actual ice lolly, once you’ve had a lick of Tropical Popsicle, you realise that the first taste is all there is to it - sure it’s nice, but it ends up totally transparent by the end. It seems like too many bands, this one included, get so bogged down in creating that ‘perfect vibe’, that they forget to write any songs. Dawn of Delight ticks the psychedelic resurgence box so hard that they may as well have called the record Surrealistic Pillow 2013 Edition and be done with it. But they didn’t, and Dawn of Delight is boring because so many people have done it better. I’ve got no problem with the sixties vibe, but Tropical Popsicle face the problem that Tame Impala and Foxygen can write interesting music, whereas there’s so little development on most of the tracks on Dawn of Delight that you can completely zone out after the first 20 seconds of each, with fair a confidence that nothing will have changed by the end. It’s incredibly passive music, and maybe it’s just because I don’t take drugs, but the repetitive nature is just too monotonous to provoke any reaction. But even with that said, much like the aforementioned ice lolly, you’ll still probably grab Tropical Popsicle at the first sight of sun, sit outside with it, and be deliriously happy for a few minutes. 6/10 Alex Throssell
