First discovered by the world through a collection of demos on Soundcloud recorded at home while on house arrest, Dominic Fike’s rise since has been the kind only seen once or twice per generation–praised by everyone from The Fader to The New Yorker as “the future of pop music” for his fusion of hip-hop and sun-damaged rock that spawned a #1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart and subsequent collaborations with the likes of Paul McCartney, Justin Bieber, Halsey, Omar Apollo, Kenny Beats and more. While he quickly built a devoted fanbase for his music–evidenced by his sold-out debut North American Rain Or Shine tour in 2019–Dom’s profile grew exponentially when he emerged as Elliot, a fan favorite in season 2 of HBO’s Euphoria. While it would have been easy for Dom to tap any number of super-producers and songwriters for his forthcoming sophomorealbumSunburn, Dom decided to revisit his roots and return to his native Florida to pen a love letter to the complicated locale in which he was raised. Aided by drummer Henry Kwapis (Dijon), producers Devin Workman and Jim-E-Stack (Bon Iver, Caroline Polachek), Sunburnis comprised of 14 ruthlessly honest dispatches from about heartbreak and regret, addiction, sex, and jealousy. It’s the sound of someone who returned home to discover himself once more, who found the right word sin small rooms–conjuring timeless spells to close this last chapter of his life and open the door to an even more searingly bright future. The album is perhaps best represented by its title track “Sunburn,” a mission statement about life in South Florida: being too broke for higher education, the tears of another terrified about losing it all, and the resolve of the narrator to never let that happen. As Therefrain goes: “When I die, lay me in the sun.”