Daytrippin by Cyrena Wages

CW is back from honeymoon just in time for the holidays. But not everyone is smiling.

Daytrippin comes out today. So the happy couple are back from honeymoon and going on a nice cosy picnic? Of course not. “We were born to be wild.” This feels like the sequel to last month’s Wildflower.

When I first saw the title of this one I really did believe it would be a light-hearted summer song. I was naive. I now realise I don’t want or need a light song from CW. I’ve always been into Stephen King and David Lynch. You might compare this one to Lana Del Rey but there’s no need. There are a few indie contemporary artists who appear happy and bubbly IRL but deeply dark in their music like Zandi Holup and Kitty Coen. Their sadness makes us happy.

As you might expect, this is no ordinary day trip. As far as I can make out, this is a different sort of trip altogether. There are hints of drugs and insomnia. She’s married now, but she’s still crazy AF and she knows you wouldn’t want it any other way. We were born to be wild... words that sound familiar somehow from a classic song about biker gangs.

We got drunk by design
Bored with the everyday
Planning a great escape

“Kisses drippin’ off me like wine” is a great line. The singer is known to be a fan of red wine, and (heaven forbid) has been known to put ice cubes in it. I’m told that is all the rage now. Not fully chilled red wine as such, but certainly not summer room temperature either, which in this heatwave would be as hot as black coffee. If you’re not putting the red in the fridge you’re missing a trick.

Writers of all kinds find their heads full of one too many thoughts. In that sense writing becomes an impulse, a way to explore and dilute the voices, to reduce their volume. Cyrena sometimes labels this as being ‘heady’, someone with too much going on upstairs to be quite the full shilling.

What has been thrilling over the last year has been watching her explore these characters and personas not only in her music but also on socials and even here on Substack. If you think you have a house guest or two in your head, imagine what it would be like with a full village fete going on up there. Or a picnic from Alice in Wonderland.

These songs are harder to write about than Vanity Project, Cyrena’s brilliant debut album. There’s rarely a neat, tidy story that explains itself. They’re deep and difficult, dealing with big feelings. There is talk of death and something like betrayal. There is love, but the dark sort. The life or death sort. The Catherine Earnshaw sort.

A little bit of empathy
Just a touch insanity
Baby we were born to be wild

The vocal delivery is deliberately muted, unusual for a CW song, and it makes me wonder if the singer is even alive. Could she be a ghost? She sings about the past. But what of the present? Did everyone make it out alive?

You can stream Daytrippin in all the usual places and find out more on CW’s website. You can presave sophomore album Miss Melancholia! here.