The recording project of Brooklyn-based artists Kelley Nicole Dugan and Mina Walker, Daisy The Great is a self-described indie pop ensemble which has won acclaim with their distinctive mix of sincere emotion, lush folk harmonies and mischievous energy. The style was encapsulated by 2022 full-length All You Need Is Time, a record which landed at the centre of a Venn diagram between folk, anti-folk and boygenius style indie rock.
A standout of the release was ‘Time Machine’, a song which stamped with “the frantic and cutting tone which marks the Anthropocene,” as we put it in a preview, “where the sense of impending doom is matched only by a desire to go back to better times, though one complicated by the nagging doubt we’d do things exactly the same over again, no matter how costly.” Only Daisy the Great didn’t quite feel the song was frantic and cutting enough, because when working on their new release, Tough Kid EP, they invited Sarah Tudzin (AKA illuminati hotties) to help them reimagine the track as something more intense.
Hence ‘Time Machine 2’, what the band call “the evil twin sequel to our song ‘Time Machine'” that raises the stakes. “We’ve always had a dream to make a grittier, faster version of the song,” they continue, “so when we got the opportunity to collaborate with indie punk legend Sarah Tudzin of illuminati hotties, we knew it would be the perfect moment to realize that vision.”
The song serves as the perfect foil for the other tracks on the EP, from the delicate folk croon of the title track to the sunny laidback rendition of Sleigh Bells’ buzz band classic ‘Rill Rill’. Or indeed the sultry swoon of ‘Looking U Up’, where the mood flickers between alluring and disinterested, and the understated vibe is the entire point of the sound. Daisy the Great are a versatile outfit, and Tough Kid EP suggests any number of directions they might go next, all within a handful of tracks.
Tough Kid EP is out now and available via streaming services.