Welcome to In Tune with WBMB, a weekly column where a member of the station covers a new track from the underground. This week’s article is written by Carolin Sanchez.
As the end of the semester nears, the celebration starts early with Take Van’s “Daylight Blush.”
Van, whose legal name is Vanessa Valdes, is an artist from South Florida with six years worth of singles, EPs and albums under her discography. After kicking off her career in 2019 with her self-produced EP titled “Journey,” Van landed her first hit with “In My Head,” a fun bedroom pop anthem.
The song has amassed over 12 million streams to date after being featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist in 2022. The airy vocals and dreamy production of the track were comparable to that of U.K. pop singer-songwriter and producer PinkPantheress.
In a 2021 interview with Finessed Media, Van defined the umbrella category for her music as alternative but says each project has “its own vibe.” She said that her own experiences with love and heartbreak have become the framework for her tracks, where she often juxtaposes these raw, emotional lyrics against a hard-hitting beat.
With the renaissance of club culture and a shift from mega clubs to more intimate settings, the rise of hyperpop and experimentalism has been imminent.
Charli XCX’s “Brat” led the cultural shift in the pop genre, where the artist sang of her struggles with friendship, identity and love while still playing into the party girl or party boy aesthetic that is true to her.
“The Night Gets Loud,” Van’s fourth independent album released in October, is influenced by her pop peers, but the former’s lyrics and tone keep her tracks from getting lost in the noise.
“Daylight Blush” tells the classic story of a one-time connection that she cannot help but want to explore further, beyond the veil of confidence that nightlife offers and into sunrise, where a new day begins. She sings, “I just show my face and the place lights up / I can be what you want ‘til the daylight comes.”
The heavy punch of the bassline and crisp drums gives the feeling of a Brooklyn basement rave, but with a beat so addictive that one could listen in the comfort of their bedroom.
The bridge of the song does a great job of winding down the fast pace of the track and creating that feeling of coming back down to reality: “Can you call my mainline? / Send a text, I’ll reply.”
The other tracks on this project follow the same nocturnal Y2K theme, with most songs being a little over or under two minutes each.
It’s a pattern that seems intentional with this genre: short and sweet but lively enough to replay multiple times.
It comes as a surprise that Van has remained a well-kept secret and fully independent artist, considering she certainly has the potential to be a pop staple. It’s definitely worth listening to if you’re a ‘work hard during the week, party harder on the weekends’ kind of person.
