Chain Gang of 1974

Daydream Forever is the third studio album by The Chain Gang of 1974 and the project's major-label debut, released February 4, 2014 on Warner Bros. Records. Recorded over seventeen weeks from October 2012 to February 2013 in Malibu, California, it was produced by Kamtin Mohager alongside Isom Innis of Foster the People — a collaboration that thickened the sound considerably from Wayward Fire's rawer textures.

The album's DNA runs through Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, OMD, and M83, and it delivers that pedigree with genuine hooks: "Ordinary Fools" opens on a crisp synth punch, "Sleepwalking" had already found a second life embedded in Grand Theft Auto V's radio in 2013, and "Miko" channels the kind of late-night electropop M83 built a career on. AllMusic called it "a must for anyone in an especially strong phase of '80s nostalgia," and Alternative Press gave it three-and-a-half stars, noting it wasn't intended "for revivalists only." The album landed at #36 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.

"Sleepwalking" remains the project's signature moment — its placement in GTA V brought Mohager's name to an audience that hadn't been following indie electronic closely. Daydream Forever earned that audience and then some.