Who doesn’t love a nice wee reverie? What better way to take your mind away from mundane tasks like walking down the street, driving a car or operating heavy machinery than by drifting off into your own little fantasy world. A world were all other mortals bow to your very presence and you spend afternoons frolicking with Eva Mendes while supping ice-cold raspberry Yop.

Swedish duo Pacific! could well be fans of the humble old daydream too. Their debut album is not only called Reveries, but is also the kind of sunny, electro-pop that is seemingly built with the intention to soundtrack lazy moments and dreamy escapes from reality.

Daniel Hogberg and Bjorn Synneby claim to have been inspired by the sight of the sun bouncing off the ocean, and try to capture that light in their music. Maybe those fancy new Macs can do it. 

What they do capture is a fairly inoffensive set of breezy numbers, replete with lilting harmonies and soft-rock melodies. The band aim for the blissful beauty of Air and Daft Punk, but don’t quite have enough mystique in their sound to truly hook you in. They try for Moon Safari and end up sounding a little too much like an advert for a healthy new orange juice.

Villanova is a pleasant enough opener, full of summer bounciness and catchy bleeps, while Sunset BLVD grows into an addictive, flighty little number with a slight resemblance to ELO’s Livin’ Thing.

Hot Lips, on the other hand, is bogged down by some terrible lyrics and a leaden vocal.

The vocals on many of the tracks are a problem, with the duo not quite having the ability to pull off those West Coast harmonies they’re aiming for.

The rest of the album floats along like a dopey-faced bumblebee, avoiding anything that may look threatening and steering doggedly to a pre-determined route.

While never a terrible record, Reveries is dated and uninspiring. Fatally, it also fails to offer any new treasures to anyone prepared to give it a second chance.

Pacific! may well go on to produce much better music, but they’ll need to look past their favourite bands and resist the temptation to push the big red button on their mixing desk that reads “irresistible summer pop”, as it may well be faulty.

They certainly haven’t made an album worthy of giving aural texture to an Eva Mendes-related daydream, either. No sirree.

Release date: 11/08/2008
Artist website: www.musicpacific.com
Label: Half Machine Records

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