Modern Olympia’s own Carey Clayton has been doing a lot lately, from releasing his own music to touring as a member of Jay Som’s band as they support Death Cab for Cutie on tour. “Mid Eternal Life Crisis” is the latest single from Clayton under the Modern Olympia moniker this year, and while its swirling sounds have a freshness to them, they also give the best of what the last decade had to offer.
Compressed drums, vocals rife with chorus effects and slight pitch shifting, and math rock marrying indietronica gives “Mid Eternal Life Crisis” flavors of Passion Pit, Empire of the Sun, CHVRCHES, and MGMT. All of these bands mastered the art of wistful pop, where catchy and positive-sounding instrumentation masked the contemplative lyrics and got hipster crowds on their feet back in the late Aughts and early Teens.
Clayton’s lyrics in “Mid Eternal Life Crisis” dig deep, untangling constant fears of getting older with the unyielding desire to stay young (“Waging war on the future tense / The little that’s left, you make it last”). They touch on the not just the human experience of dissatisfaction, but the belief in needing more, always reaching for a farther star, rejecting complacency even when things are working out in our favor. There is a slight positive spin, though: Because we have limited time on Earth, and life is too short not to chase our dreams regardless of age, Clayton takes that restlessness and yearns to turn it into action (“Even if I had eternal life, priceless / I’d still have a midlife crisis / What am I waiting for?”)
“Mid Eternal Life Crisis” is a solid indie pop bop, taking the dreaminess of last decade’s sounds to their extremes and shaping them into a song fit for the end of summer 2026. Take a listen via the track’s music video below.
Written by Will Sisskind
