Pixey – Daisy Chains Review

At the back end of last year, with a hangover gripping the brain in a vice-like fashion, comfortable music was relied on. Stumbling through playlist after playlist, the overwhelming surge of emails causing a landslide even sober brains would struggle with, it brings a torturous clarity. Nobody can listen to everything, and the finite time spent hearing new music while you still have two working ears is as rewarding as it is essential. Pixey, whose excellent Dreams, Pains & Paper Planes was released last year, charts a well-deserved rise and rise. Almost a year on from scrubbing a hangover away with toast and a groovy bass on I’m Just High comes another song to salvage the state of mind following a night of heavy drinking. Daisy Chains is an incredible collaboration with Tayo Sound.  

Those rhythmic stylings Pixey depends on are front and centre for Daisy Chains, loving addictions follow the course these funk-like moments create. As short as it is sweet, this new track from Pixey and Tayo Sound brings out the best in their instrumentals but lacks the punchier charms of their solo works. Collaboration here at least brings out something new, but it muffles the charms each has when working alone, and while Daisy Chains is a delight with radio hit written all over it, there are moments where the emotive core is not as present. Even then, quality lyrics can be found within, the summer fling and subsequent autumnal sting are ripe for the picking as the sun lingers on in September.  

Effectively in step with Pixey and her sound so far, Daisy Chains is a light and breezy conclusion to the upbeat charms of her first record. Distortion-heavy in those opening moments and far more focused on the groove and beat made up by the drum machine, that is fine enough. It is the lyrics which are, as ever, the key link to enjoying Pixey. Thoughts spinning around the brain like a record, the connection to the titular flower chains and all those little bits and pieces, the love lost and crashing feeling when it is gone for good. All of it expresses the run of style Pixey is now presenting to her rightly growing audience, and finding her way through these lyrical spots is a genuine pleasure to hear unfold.  

Daisy Chains still has a spring in its step, an expected joy and optimism presented by Pixey. It is the value of her words underneath that and the pairing of Tayo Sound which brings about a change in pace for Pixey. Still the usual quality, all the same shots at loving in the hardest climates of all, but an unbelievably nice way to end the summer. Even then, the skies are still blue and the sun is, in its own wretched way, bursting down on cobbled streets. It makes wearing beige cord jackets a pain, but then Daisy Chains is an optimistic powerhouse even with its delicate entries of love addiction. Those are the quality lyrics Pixey and her listeners depend on, connect with and use to conquer their own fears in similar fashion. It is a treat of a listen, even if it is not as punchy as her previous works.