Corey Bzibziak, Jacob Peter, Andrew Kothen, and Gabe Wells make up dreambeaches, a Buffalo, New York quartet with a cheerful, sunny style that sounds like it’s straight out of southern California to match their name. The band presents “Habits,” the title single from their recently released Habits EP.
The crisp, sparkly guitar working together with upbeat drum lines help achieve the style previously mentioned. The buoyant instrumentals, interestingly enough, pair well with the not-so chipper lyrics. The words describe the paradoxical form your outlook on life takes when you’re still young and volatile, or somewhere in between leaving the naivety of youth and approaching an age that reflects some semblance of wisdom. At the risk of sounding cliche, the lyrics are, if anything, a classic tale of someone who is old enough to know better, but too young to care: “I make more plans than I have good friends, but I will take the ride and I’ll stay out all night.”
Do the happy instrumentals aim to convey a sense of humorous defeatism or just plain acceptance? Either way, on some level, this character has come to terms with their situation. Otherwise, the song would not be titled “Habits.” They will habitually go back and forth between getting better and getting lost.
The one line that takes the cake is: “When everything has been reversed/I’m walking forwards to my birth”. Here, the listener is reminded of how life really isn’t so linear. There’s a turning point somewhere along the way where you realize you don’t know as much as you thought you did. However, you have no choice but to walk forward into this uncharted territory and grow.