Following a fuzz heavy intro that suggests a love of shoegaze, ‘Abandoned Love’ – the lead track from Arrows of Athena’s second album ‘Daydreaming’ – opens up to share a techy sounding slice of alternative rock-pop in a Garbage meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs style. It doesn’t take too long before the number’s brilliant blend of mechanical rhythms and contrasting flowing vocal begins to make an impression. Against some familiar sounding music, the track places a spotlight on vocalist Jac-Lyn Gibson, whose performance here is almost strong enough alone to carry the entire track, and definitely makes it easy to forgive what might be perceived as sharing too much of an obvious influence. The vocal shares an immediate power, calling out clearly despite being subjected to filters, and ultimately sounds like the perfect compliment to a great musical melody. As for that intro: it’s not a red herring. Guitarist Scott Lerner creeps through the cracks to fill the bridges with more of that pleasingly aggressive style, giving this track a superbly tough edge when needed. When released as a single in 2025, it sounded like one of the duo’s finest recordings to date; when experienced as part of this full length, its impact certainly isn’t diminished, despite being complimented by several other strong performances. If you’ve not heard Arrows of Athena before, this will leave a superb first impression.
Keeping the energy high, a groove laden drum part brings a dance-y edge to a huge, jangly sound on ‘Comets’, powering a crossover style that blends pop, rock, indie and a touch of swirly shoegaze to create something with a big presence. The guitars may take a dominant role, but a slightly filtered vocal full of longer notes also does a lot of heavy lifting in the melodic stakes, and also manages to convey a slightly aloof edge that invites obvious comparisons to peak Garbage once again. While this isn’t as big on immediate hooks as ‘Abandoned Love’, it’s certainly a track that’s overflowing with really accessible melodies, resulting in something that sounds ready to bring this band to a larger audience. Sliding into ‘Just You & Me’, the duo introduce a touch more pop during a great sounding intro, but the arrival of a bigger sounding guitar during the verse makes everything sound a little more “Athena”. The vocal is a little less melodic than before, but at the point where this begins to sound a little unfocused, a huge Garbage-esque chorus rises up, almost out of nowhere, delivering a sugary hook that hits brilliantly. This takes a couple more spins before it sounds entirely natural, but it’s still a solid example of the duo’s crossover sound.
Offering something more direct, ‘Nothing Was True’ kicks off with a busy drum groove – something that’s almost New Order-esque – and contrasts that with a huge layer of synths. In many ways, this gives Jac-Lyn the ultimate backdrop to share a broad vocal that makes the best of long crying notes, which work brilliantly despite being in contrast with the music. During a brief instrumental interlude, fuzzy sounding guitars bring a light industrial edge, showing a natural affinity with a slightly noisier sound, but it’s when reaching for bigger synths that Arrows of Athena sound most enthused. On that score, ‘Room With A View’ really shines when placing pulsing synth sounds over a heady beat. Again, there are obvious nods to Garbage, but some of the keys poking through lend more of an 80s feel which leans into something a little more nostalgic. It would be remiss to suggest this is markedly different from the bulk of the Arrows’ recordings, but it has a slightly poppy feel in places that makes it seem a little more commercial. Then again, for those who’ve tapped into some of the duo’s rockier edges, there are still moments of cold rhythm guitar that hint at a love of goth and an incessant bassline to be enjoyed, and both add a real energy throughout. It could be argued that in terms of bringing all of the duo’s musical interests together in a tightly wound three minute package, this is an album highlight.
Elsewhere, the more predictable ‘You’re Not All That’ offers more Garbage-isms spliced with a love of Metric, and ‘Mistakes’ treads a similar path, but has the edge since it provides another busy workout where Jac-Lyn’s voice really shines. This album showcases some great choruses, but it really comes into its own when throwing the occasional curveball. At points where you might feel Arrows of Athena have become a little formulaic, they’ll take the listener somewhere quite different – not anywhere especially new, but somewhere a little out of the ordinary. ‘Dirty Little Secret’ is a great case in point, since it adds a dubby bass to the mix which works brilliantly with a trip hop inspired drum part and sultry vocal, but the best example of the Arrows’ thinking a little outside of the box comes with the brilliant ‘Tied Up In Knots’, a mid tempo workout where Scott dominates with a huge guitar sound in places, taking influence from early 90s shoegaze sounds and providing another interesting musical counterpart for Jac-Lyn’s clean, melodic vocals. Those keeping a close ear will still hear some very AoA-esque keys poking through the wall of sound, however, ensuring this doesn’t feel like too much of an unnatural step forward…or possibly even sideways.
Arrows of Athena’s first album, 2024’s ‘The Ghost Archives’ was enjoyable. Its best songs showed a lot of promise, but ‘Daydreaming’ pips it at almost every step of the way. Although it’s a record that feels a little frontloaded with a pair of brilliant singles (‘Abandoned Love’ and ‘Comets’), ‘Room With A View’, ‘Dirty Little Secret’ and ‘Nothing Was True’ are strong enough to give this twelve track collection a really solid core that’s hard to beat. Released at a time when Garbage seem like a little too much of nostalgia act, this album serves up some nineties sounds in a sparkly new dress, and ‘Daydreaming’ is set to help this duo become one of your new favourite acts. A highly recommended listen.
April 2026