Daydream Vacation is a side project/collaboration of Asya from the indie-pop band Smoosh and Dave Einmo from the electro band Head Like a Kite. That said, basically forgot everything you’ve heard these two acts before. The ethereal elements that define Smoosh are gone. The normally subdued loops of Head Like a Kite are gone. Instead, this is a mash-up of an album that at points could be slickest party album since LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver, and other times comes across as an over-enthusiastic soundtrack for a tweenage TV show.

When Dare Seize the Fire works, it is a sublime piece of electro-pop. “That Girl Don’t Sleep” is a slick track that could bump across dance floors, and shows off everything Asya and Einmo bring to the record as the two working together to produce a track with shades of early Goldfrapp. “Silent Places” is the most unbridled fun track on the album, and shows off a newfound maturity in Asya’s voice that marks a departure from her vocals on Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl project.

Yet for as remarkable these tracks were, some others such as “Feeling that I’m Floating” and “Kitchy Koo” are over-the-top upbeat and break the groove the album seems to be on the verge of getting into. Taken alone, “Feeling that I’m Floating” and “Kitchy Koo” are not terrible tracks, but they simply don’t feel like they have a true place and purpose on the record.

(self-released, no address provided)