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Daði Freyr — Too Much Not Enough

John Hughes | Published on 11/1/2026

Available Streaming, CD, Vinyl, Cassette, Samlist 2026

Not all albums are meant to be grand statements of loss or joy. Some just fit a season or a place, like the summer that just passed for me. It can succeed in brightening spirits and getting hips a-wiggling. This wiggling I am guilty of whenever I play Too Much Not Enough. But my pelvis gets ahead of me.

Towering at 6 foot 10 inches, Daði Freyr (“DA-dee FRAY-er”) is still a really big deal in Iceland. Here in the States, not so much anymore. Fronting the band Daði & Gagnamagnið, he was one of the top contestants in the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest with “Think About Things” before Covid cancelled it. In 2021 he came back with “10 Years” and earned Iceland fourth place. His career really took off during lockdown with some very charming and colorful YouTube videos and Twitch streams, which is where I discovered him.

Visually, he has always had a gangly, awkward aesthetic. With a homemade, crafty quality to his clothes and video work. For most of his career his signature look was long hair, colorful coordinated sweats, and sandals. Then, in 2025, he released a video for his song “I Don't Wanna Talk” that consisted entirely of him taking an electric razor to his disheveled locks. Classic transformation schtick!

Why am I talking about visuals in a review of an album? Because his new album is part of that transformation. He has been making videos to go with his music since high school with ever increasing skill and fancifulness. Moreover, I’ve never been able to divorce that bright, homespun look from this funky synth-pop that tickles my brain.

The album is set up like the classic pop albums of yore by artists like the Beatles, ABBA, and the Ramones: a tight twelve songs in under 36 minutes. Hook, groove, then onto the next song.

Daði builds songs from the bottom up, and the foundation is big, deep, bouncy bass. You've got woofers? Make 'em bark. There are no hard edges here. The songs are melodic. Daði works a wide vocal range that starts with his baritone and rides up from there. He has an intimate relationship with the mic and a hypnotic way of phrasing that pulls you along.

What first drew me to this album was “I’m Out and I Wanna Go Home” with a groovy Icelandic companion video. It's a quandary I can relate to - an unsettled state of mind that is entirely our own fault. See lyric:

The glass is half empty
But overflowing at the same time
It happens over and over again (Over and over again)
And the grass is never greener
When I'm on the other side

'Cause I just cut it and cut it again

Beaten once again - the self-deprecation is all on him, and Freyr knows it.

Like a lot of synth-pop, the album is definitely compressed, but it isn’t crushed. I never felt the tools getting in the way. Every instrument is clear and warm, and the electronic bass is nicely rounded, deep, and tuneful. It gets its message across without taking it to 11.

This is pop music that isn’t obsessed with sex and status and surface, or teen crushes and angst. It’s warm, funny, and mature. Daði sings of leaving the wide-world and coming home, after eleven years abroad, to a small village in Iceland - a land of roughly 400,000 people. Back home, RÚV’s Rás 2 made it their Album of the Week.

Daði says the theme of the album is homecoming, but the irony is not lost on anyone. Daði appears to be touring the world almost constantly. He played the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on October 29th (and I was there!). Then he heads home to perform with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on November 5th in Reykjavík.

Some albums are grand statements. This one is a great haircut: the air tickles your ears again, you feel freer, and it makes you want to go out. And then, of course, you wanna go home and play it again.

Postscript

Here are some impressions from Daði Freyr's concert at the Castro Theater.

Daði may be a one man show, but he towers over such expectations, carrying a full house to a fever pitch of joy that that will be sustained long after the last gobo has flashed and the entry stamp fades from our wrists. He bounces around in what looks like a hip choral robe and white sneakers like a one human gospel choir. He exudes self confidence with self deprecating humor while egging on the audience in between songs.

I come away with the the reaffirmation of our shared humanity. It is such a contrast versus so much 2026 music culture which is all about beauty filters, wealth, and artificiality driven by the need for monetization and TikToc content. Be who you are, don't spend time and energy on the other stuff. This is a message I really needed to hear, so thanks Daði Freyr!

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