Daphni Butterfly
Daphni's Butterfly lands as a high-energy, genre-blurring statement that repeatedly foregrounds club-ready production while nudging Dan Snaith's Caribou sensibility into the frame. Across six professional reviews the record earned a 64.67/100 consensus score, and critics agree the album's strongest moments pair euphoric immediacy with moments of experimental grit rather than wholesale pop polish.
Reviewers consistently point to “Waiting So Long”, “Eleven” and “Good Night Baby” as standout tracks, with additional praise for “Two Maps” and “Josephine” where the record's motoric grooves and jazz-tinged touches come to life. Critics note a tension that runs through the collection - dance versus pop convergence, a duality between DJ-oriented structure and spontaneous, joyful moments - and they highlight how production wizardry yields both visceral floor-moving peaks and occasional schematic gestures.
Taken together the critical consensus is mixed-positive: several reviewers celebrate Butterfly as a feel-good, festival-ready set of songs that doubles as an experimental playground, while others criticize its flirtation with stadium-ready churn and occasional cartoonish EDM flourishes. For those searching for a clear answer to "is Butterfly good," the record is worth attention for its standout songs and dancefloor functionality, even if opinions diverge on whether its eclecticism sacrifices cohesion. Below, the full reviews unpack how these best songs on Butterfly balance commercial pulse with inventive detours.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Two Maps (continued context)
1 mention
"propel the record into its most unrestrained territory yet"— Clash Music
Waiting So Long
6 mentions
"'Waiting So Long' emerges as one of the record's most immediate moments"— Clash Music
Eleven
4 mentions
"'Eleven' closes things out with a sense of loose, sunlit release"— Clash Music
propel the record into its most unrestrained territory yet
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Sad Piano House
Clap Your Hands
Hang
Lucky
Waiting So Long
Napoleon's Rock
Good Night Baby
Talk To Me
Two Maps
Josephine
Miles Smiles
Goldie
Caterpillar
Shifty
Invention
Eleven
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 7 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
The best songs on Butterfly are the ones that bridge Daphni and Caribou sensibilities: “Waiting So Long” stands out as a triumphant hybrid, and “Good Night Baby” delivers rare emotional heft for a Daphni record. Richie Assaly's voice here is measured and appreciative, noting that tracks like “Sad Piano House” and the epic closer “Eleven” reveal the album's centaur-like quality - part club-ready propulsion, part wistful Caribou melodicism. For listeners asking "best tracks on Butterfly" and "best songs on Butterfly," these cuts best capture Snaith's knack for marrying dancefloor focus with surprising, experimental detours.
Key Points
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The best song, "Waiting So Long," succeeds because it fuses Daphni dance energy with Caribou emotional melody.
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The album's core strengths are kinetic club tracks tempered by surprising, idiosyncratic interludes and occasional emotional moments.
Themes
Critic's Take
On Butterfly Dan Snaith leans hard into crowd-pleasing machinery, and the best songs here are the ones that let a little ugliness through - notably “Talk to Me” and “Caterpillar”. The record trades Cherry’s singular scenes for stadium-ready churn, so searches for the best songs on Butterfly will often point to “Talk to Me” as the standout and “Caterpillar” as the closest thing to old Daphni grit. Snaith’s intent is clear: make the floor move, but the reward comes when tracks stop being sales pitches and start being strange again.
Key Points
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“Talk to Me” is best because it cracks the album’s glossy surface with acidic lines and an uneasy vocal, offering true surprise.
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The album’s core strength is its club-ready production and consistent mid-130s momentum, though that same focus limits eccentricity.
Themes
Critic's Take
Dan Snaith’s Butterfly is built to move: the best tracks - “Clap Your Hands”, “Waiting So Long” and “Josephine” - pair euphoric immediacy with deft production. Paul Carr writes with fond authority, celebrating Daphni’s club-ready abandon while noting how songs like “Clap Your Hands” overwhelm the senses with streamlined simplicity. The record blurs the line with Caribou without losing its festival-sized heart, and tracks such as “Josephine” and “Eleven” deliver ascents that reward both dancefloors and living-room discos.
Key Points
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“Clap Your Hands” is the standout for its streamlined simplicity and immediate, overwhelming joy.
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The album’s core strengths are its festival-ready energy and Snaith’s production craft that blurs Daphni and Caribou.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Dan Snaith's Butterfly makes an immediate case for its best tracks as club-ready essentials, with “Sad Piano House” opening in a melancholic-euphoric swing and “Waiting So Long” standing out as one of the record's most immediate moments. The reviewer's voice registers admiration for the album's duality - playful textures and muscular low-end - explaining why the best songs on Butterfly feel equally imaginative and unapologetically functional. By highlighting “Two Maps” as the moment the record dives into full rave intensity, the critic frames these top tracks as the core reasons the album already reads like a defining electronic record of the year.
Key Points
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The best song, 'Waiting So Long', is most immediate and dancefloor-ready, featuring Snaith's vocals and exuberant bounce.
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The album's core strengths are its dancefloor functionality and deft balance between playful textures and muscular low-end.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Daphni's Butterfly feels caught between two impulses, and the review makes clear that the best tracks - notably “Miles Smiles” and “Josephine” - are the moments where that friction yields something alive. The critic's voice is blunt and exacting, praising “Miles Smiles” as the LP's closest thing to a Caribou moment and celebrating “Josephine” for its dizzying groove and motoric snare that makes you want to move. Conversely, cuts like “Invention” and the tongue-in-cheek EDM gestures are called out as schematic or cartoonish rather than inspired. Overall the reviewer frames the album as technically proficient but emotionally stalled, with the jazzier, looser tracks providing the clearest pleasures.
Key Points
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The best song is "Miles Smiles" because it most successfully channels Caribou's depth and jazz-inflected looseness.
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The album's core strength is its technical eclecticism and occasional jazz-inflected moments, though these are undermined by inconsistent, schematic genre exercises.
Themes
Critic's Take
Daphni's Butterfly feels like Dan Snaith loosening the screws between his two selves, and the best songs - notably “Waiting So Long” and “Good Night Baby” - make that case plainly. Joe Goggins writes with an easy, persuasive relish, noting that “Waiting So Long” arrives as an ebullient, celebratory highlight and that the gorgeous “Good Night Baby” is a standout for soundtracking the night's end. The record's variety, from the rhythmic experimentation of “Miles Smiles” to the propulsive rush of “Shifty”, underlines why listeners search for the best tracks on Butterfly and find themselves returning to these core moments. Overall, the album reads as possibly the most relentlessly feel-good collection of 2026, a dance-floor-minded broadened palette rather than a strict genre exercise.
Key Points
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The best song, “Waiting So Long”, distills the album's ebullient, French-house-inflected heart and functions as its emotional centerpiece.
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The album's core strengths are its joyful, feel-good tone and wide-ranging dance experimentation across tempos and moods.