Surprise Wish [CD]

Surprise Wish is the sophomore album from Burlington, Vermont indie-rock project Dari Bay and the band's first release for Double Double Whammy. Following the cult-favorite debut Longest Day of the Year (2023), songwriter Zack James sharpens the project's sound into something more immediate and visceral: scuzzy guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and conversational vocals that feel both intimate and unguarded.Raised in Brattleboro, Vermont in a musical family, James has spent years immersed in the region's DIY scene - playing with artists like Lily Seabird and Greg Freeman, writing in the band Robber Robber, and touring as a member of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. With Surprise Wish, he distills that experience into his most focused songwriting yet.Written largely alone over the course of a year while James finished college and balanced multiple projects, the album embraces a raw, homespun approach. Rather than chasing genre aesthetics, James leaned into instinct and immediacy, building songs around ideas that arrived suddenly and refused to leave. The result is a record that blends '90s alt-rock, indie, and slacker rock into something both familiar and newly restless.Across it's nine songs, Surprise Wish captures the strange emotional terrain of young adulthood - a life shaped by the internet, isolation, friendship, near-disasters, and flashes of fragile hope. Tracks like the fuzzed-out rocker "The Joke," the spiraling character study "Chevy," and the cathartic single "We're Gonna Be Okay" pair distorted guitars with lyrics that feel searching, self-aware, and quietly funny.At once scrappy and assured, Surprise Wish is a portrait of a person coming into being.