Dazey and the Scouts · 2017
Maggot
November 3, 2025
Riot Grrrl resurgence. Queercore landmark. But just excellent punk, honestly.
Dazey and the Scouts were a 4.5 person band from 2016 to 2018. They released this one (fantastic) album which nobody noticed at the time, and then they disbanded. That is until 2021, when they were re-evaluated by horny and punk hungry music nerds looking for something intimate, passionate, and full of energy. Bless them, for this album is some good shit. The attention prompted the band to release physical copies, pressing nine records, a CD, and a cassette—all these years after the album’s release.
7 tracks.
Groan
I found this album through this song, and it remains my favourite of the seven tracks. This track—and the entire album by extension—is incredibly fun. In Groan, instrumentals refuse to back down against the incredible vocals of Lea Jaffe, painting an image of each player letting it all out. You can only imagine how intense the energy would be in one of their basement concerts that I will unfortunately never be a part of. Vocals are clearly the highlight, full of sass and giving maximum attitude. The note at 2:28 is some stunning soprano shit.
The song is direct about its subject, unabashedly chasing inappropriate love tainted with unbalanced age and power dynamics. The magic, however, is in how you find yourself falling in line with the performer rather than being an adult about it. “I wanna spend the night with you” is the most straight forward way to tell how much you want someone. You can’t help but share the sheer desperation in being wanted. It is made obvious who’s in the wrong, with lines like “For a girl this young, naïve, and miserable” and the repeated “You want a fresh cut flower, and I’m your sweet red rose”. It’s also painfully obvious that the younger one isn’t manipulated, unaware, or stupid. Fully knowing how foolish she’s being, She just can’t give a fuck. Honestly, I’d do the same for attention that I so dearly crave.
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Wet
Maggot as an album gets rave reviews owing greatly to its lyricism. The scouts’ literary prowess is usually the cherry on top of catchy top-lines and quirky riffs, but not everything can hit. Wet is retro pop reimagined with lyrics that are uncomfortably literal. My discomfort doesn’t come from the blatant depiction of an emotional crywank session—I wouldn’t rate this album so highly if this was the case—but rather the punny and turgid verses that evoke a cringe reaction before I can appreciate everything else that’s so great in this song. It’s still hella catchy.
I noticed this has eleven seventeen millions plays on YouTube. Cool.
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James Deen You Let Us Down
lol? This relatively slower, calmer track requires some context to appreciate. It’s a funny surfy tune per se, but provides a deeper insight to the humans behind the voices and instruments. Maggot being a debut album, the track does a fine job at introducing you to Dazey and the Scouts.
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Sad Boys
Outstanding performance. Sad Boys has a good ratio of ups and downs, captivating guitar hooks, and thought-provoking lyrics that make you wonder if you should have answered your ex’s call that one time. The pace and construction of this song demand vocal endurance that Lea Jaffe delivers perfectly. Full of musical talent unfortunately eclipsed by lack of… Lack of what? I wish I knew. Sad Boys is clearly better than its leading track, but James Deen as a subject portrays more soul. Maybe it’s too clean. Maybe too textbook. Maybe I haven’t been through enough breakups, but Sad Boys did not impress me too much.
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Maggot
This is the title song. My very first impression of this track was that it was poppy. A formulaic build-up, predicatable chorus, and vocals not as intense as previous displays of prowess. These make the title song feel slightly awkward when listening to the entire album, especially sitting next to Sweet Cis Teen.
But really, I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, considering Maggot is about writing. Superb lyricism is not a foreign concept to this album, but this track really highlights the songwriters’ talents, letting their metaphors for loss, despair, and melancholy speak for themselves as to why this album is called ‘Maggot’ over literally anything else. People seem to enjoy the chorus section most, but my favorite lines are from the bridge. “I don’t need support ‘cause I’ve got / My underwire bra [snicker]” is a mix of humor and howling despair. “You’re into rigor mortis / Ain’t that against the law?” is simply genius for its two double entendre.
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Sweet Cis Teen
Otto Klammer is a composer, synth player, vocalist, and bassist for Dazey and the Scouts. They are also transgender. Sweet Cis Teen is a look at their trans identity. It is a noisy song, appealing rage and isolation. The tender opening steadily builds up into a cacophony—layers upon layers of instruments and sounds that get progressively louder until the electrifying bridge—declaring “to be trans is to be your own pallbearer”.
The diatribe drowns into the sea of sound as the song spirals into pure emotion. It’s a raw and brutal climax. Frankly, the finale radiates a great deal of liberating euphoria for a song about dysphoria.
Also the guitar sings in this song. The guitar fucking sings I die for this shit man.
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Nice Nice
Um, going over to a friend’s house for a sleepover for the first time, and their dad wants them to pop a cyst on his back, but they’re really squeamish and faint, but he’s in a lot of pain so you have to do it lmao.
I am aware I discounted Wet for its literal lyrics. The story is different with this, though. You’re meant to cringe at this. Nice Nice is comic relief—mocking invasive sexual culture that my background, gender, and how much of a loser I am make hard to directly relate to. However, it does such a great job at being insufferable that you find yourself empathising with victims of the masculine idea of ‘flirtation’ which is pretty much sexual harrassment. I rate this ability highly. Obviously nobody opens with lines like “take your shirt off let me see your lady nipples”, but let’s be honest—it’s not far off from reality.
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Album Score
25 minutes makes Maggot a short album. But with an insane batting lineup of hard-hitters one after another, it demands your attention the entire duration. It is jam-packed with talent—musical, lyrical, and vocal. Lea Jaffe’s presence is strong, effecting an emotional response just as powerful. Speaking on behalf of millions of its listeners, Maggot melts its message into humour, maintaining a healthy ratio across the seven tracks. Sure some parts are rough in nature, but reproving the lack of polish is like faulting sashimi for being raw. With a decent album cover, this thrilling album gets an overall score of 69 from me—nice nice.
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