Cayucas
Dancing at the Blue Lagoon
SECRETLY CANADIAN
6/10
You can’t blame Cayucas for heading back to the summer-fun well and trying to draw every last bit of water that’s in there. That California vibe was ingrained in every chord of their 2013 debut Bigfoot, and the Yudin brothers stick with it on their latest album, Dancing at the Blue Lagoon. But the returns this time around are diminishing. Cayucas made their career as surf-rockers by occupying a sonic landscape somewhere between Gauguin’s Tahiti and the choppy coastlines of Big Sur—the endless summer, in other words, so it’s no surprise that their second album sounds fairly similar to the first. “Endless” doesn’t necessarily mean monotonous, but it would be nice to see them strike out for new territory. There’s a warm sense of nostalgia that the group aptly captures through their steadily maturing lyrics, with shoutouts to locales like Bora Bora and Encinitas, picture-perfect tales of dorm room shenanigans (“A Shadow in the Dark”), and steamy jacuzzis (“Backstroke”). Still, though Blue Lagoon transports you to an idyllic place and time, it’s too familiar a journey.
