Opinions

A ‘DIVE’ into almost monday’s first album

Colin Caggiano, Opinions Editor • November 6, 2024

The cover for almost monday’s debut album ‘DIVE’

When a musical artist releases new music, their record label promotes it using various methods. One of these methods is sending high school newspapers a poster promoting the new release. The Crimson, Bernards High School’s newspaper, has been sent many posters in the past year. More specifically, The Crimson has received three posters from two different artists; Benson Boone, for his hit single, “Beautiful Things”, and his first studio album “Fireworks & Rollerblades”, and the upcoming band, almost monday’s first album, “DIVE”. With only 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, almost monday’s record label, Hollywood Records, had a great amount of work to do to promote their first studio album, which came out on September 25th, 2024.

As a new band of three from San Diego, listeners are taking to the Alternative/Indie style of music. Since 2020, almost monday has released 16 songs plus an EP in 2021, before their 11-track album debuted in September. almost monday brings a different musical style to each of the 11 songs, yet all tracks keep to the feel of summertime.

Advit music fan, Ari Rosen’ 25 says, “I like the summertime feel and I would most definitely listen to it during the summer”.

A ‘DIVE’ into almost monday’s first album

dive

The first track is a 1:11 minute introduction called “dive, which is also the name of the album. The song brings an eerie feel when listening to the opening lyrics which are “I wanna dive to a dream that I long to see”, but its slow tempo brings a sense of familiarity for music listeners of the 60s-70s.

A listener of ‘60s music, Dr. Donna of Oceanport Middle School says, “This song is very reminiscent of the late ‘60s and even ‘70s. It brings me back to those days for sure!”

is it too late

While the first track sounds haunted, the second track, “is it too late?”, takes on a different vibe with a rock-type feeling. The lyrics portray the essence of the song, as the words show someone talking about how they miss someone else. It dives deeper by reminiscing on that time, saying “It’s the best I’ve ever had” and “Baby, baby, I just want you back”. The lyrics indicate how it might be too late to have that person again.

never enough

“Never enough”, the third track, sweeps in with its upbeat tempo in the first few seconds. The new vibe fits the song perfectly, as the lyrics revolve around love again. This time, “unlike Is it too late?”, the lyrics express a different form of love with a message of not expressing one's love enough. As with the rest of the album, the summertime theme continues throughout this specific song.

you look so good

The summertime theme takes a stop with, “you look so good”, the fourth track. Yet another love song, it talks about how good a girl looks. The way the lyrics are sung by lead singer, Dawson Daugherty, channels the rap/indie artist, grandson on his song dirty, which was released in 2020. In the chorus Daugherty sings, “I said, you look so good (so good) you should be a model, yeah you know you should”. Daugherty, throughout the song, continues the narrative of the girl looking like a model.

she likes sports

The fifth track, “she likes sports”, is one of the weakest songs on the album. The track’s title gives the song away. The track was released as a single in August of 2024, a month before the album was released. The song does not provide much of a feel that the other track on the album brings. The vibe of the summer is still in the song yet doesn’t have an impact as the rest of the songs do.

can't slow down

After one of the weakest songs, one of the best tracks comes right after. “cant slow down”, the sixth track, brings another summertime vibe, that brings hope to the listener. Like all the previous songs, the track brings another love story, yet this one is different form the others. The lyrics bring more hope, than the other songs have. Due to this hopefulness, the track feels more summer than the past four tracks.

jupiter

“jupiter”, the seventh track, is an in-between, “cant slow down”, and “you look so good”. The love/ summertime vibe is the same as the whole album. The lyrics, continue the same hopefulness, that the previous track brought. Throughout the chorus, “And we just can’t get enough”, repeats giving the listener a visual that two people can’t get enough of each other, and are Jupiter with each other.

tidal wave

The eighth track, “tidal wave”, starts out slow with a smooth melody. The first lyrics rhyme, with “Nice to meet you, she’s a barista.” The rest of the track is about the relationship between the two people and how it feels like a tidal wave. The lyrics display this perfectly as the audience can see what the relationship is like.

sunburn

Perhaps the weakest track, “sunburn”, succeded the eighth track, and is another weak track. Like all the tracks, it brings another summer feel. The name “sunburn” describes the song perfectly, but doesn’t change the fact that it still is a weak track.

seaside market

Yet another forgettable song, comes right after “sunburn” in the tenth track, “seaside market”. The melody is good, but it’s just forgettable. There is no significant lyric or melody that makes the song any better than “is it too late”.

life goes by

The last track, “life goes by” is a perfect goodbye to the album. As the track’s name states, life goes by, and so does the album. After multiple weak tracks, almost monday saves the album with the song. Its a good song for someone whose life is going by fast, just like the album did.

Overall, the album is a good first album for an up and coming band. It has its flaws, that could be fixed when their next album comes out.