Wanderlust

With its fourth EP, the Wausau, Wis., indie pop quartet Windsor Drive gives its friends and fans a hint of what its debut album might sound like. Windsor Drive's 2012 offering Wanderlust opens with “Wish Me Well,” a triumphant tune that sounds like it was built to be blasted from sprawling arena-sized stages. Kipp Wilde’s soaring inflections hover over a rhythm section that balances the metronomic mechanics of perfect timing to make for a danceable anthem. And though the following tune, “Sleepwalking,” pulses and glows with a fusion of smooth-sailing yacht rock and neo-disco, listen closer and you’ll hear Wilde railing against the general apathy and aimlessness characterized by a complacent Generation Y. But rather than point fingers, he encourages young people to get out of their ruts, take risks, and pursue dreams. “I Don’t Feel It” floats on a cosmopolitan groove, sounding like the kind of sleek Euro-pop played at fashion shows. “Impossibly” gets a bit darker with brooding, low keyboard tones, with Wilde singing doubled octaves in a sexy Prince-inspired register.