What’s Wrong With New York? – The Dare’s debut album – pulsates with hedonistic energy, satirical quips, and nostalgia for early 2000’s electroclash. The Dare, also known as Harrison Patrick Smith, is best known for his 2022 single ‘Girls’. He gained buzz this year for co-producing Charli XCX’s ‘Guess featuring Billie Eilish,’ which went straight to Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart. What’s Wrong With New York? moves in cultural synchronicity with artists like XCX and Troye Sivan, who have revitalised party anthems with tracks like ‘Club Classics’ and ‘Rush.’ The Dare brings an indie-sleaze edge to the current music scene, with a sound often described as reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem, and an exaggerated persona compared with that of The 1975 frontman Matty Healy.

 

The album opens playfully with the lyrics, ‘It’s just rock and roll, you wont die.’ ‘Open Up’ is a vivacious track, punctuated with exuberant shouts, and is the first snapshot of the messy night out that becomes the narrative focus of the album. It is an ode to club culture, dancing, and letting loose, with The Dare’s characteristic comedy: ‘Free your mind and your ass will follow.’ ‘Good Time,’ taken from a previous EP, The Sex EP, furthers the grungy, carefree atmosphere; ‘Oh, lets have some fun tonight/ Yeah, I might start a fight.’  The breathy hook and explicit lyrics create a caricatured image of a late-night fling.

 

‘Open Up’ is a vivacious track, punctuated with exuberant shouts, and is the first snapshot of the messy night out that becomes the narrative focus of the album

‘Perfume’ is lyrically centred around a $5.99 bottle of perfume, representative of an aimless drunken anecdote, ‘Spray it in my grave, so the worms can get a whiff/ I wanna smell real good while I’m burning in hell.’ In a rolling stone interview, Smith described The Dare as ‘an exaggerated version of himself,’ and this track is a fitting example – taking a simple object and turning it into something befitting a dedicated song. The exaggeration continues in ‘Girls,’ an homage to the wide array of girls he is attracted to, ‘I like the girls that do drugs/ Girls with cigarettes in the back of the club.’ It is catchy, unique, and humorous, all of which contribute to its hit status.

 

Next is ‘I Destroyed Disco,’ a standout track. It begins with the brash opening lines, ‘I break records, glasses, faces/ Kicked the whole world in the teeth with my untied laces.’ The Dare creates a picture of rebelliousness, playing on the title of the Calvin Harris album I Created Disco. The titular hook is vocoded over a syncopated bassline, punctuated by abrasive, distorted claps, creating a musical landscape that encapsulates The Dare’s distinct raucous energy.

 

‘You’re Invited’ continues in the familiar realm of satirical lyricism, brazen shouts, and dance-worthy energy, but at this point it becomes somewhat repetitive. The repetitiveness arguably resumes in ‘All Night,’ though it differentially leans towards mainstream pop with the simple but catchy hook, ‘L.A. to New York/ New York to L.A’; it is still has The Dare’s unique stamp, but is slightly more palatable in production and lyricism.

 

The eighth track of What’s Wrong With New York? is ‘Elevation,’ which acts as a turning point, the come down after a night out. With sparse but expansive production and ballad-like lyricism, this poignant song portrays a versatility that is somewhat lacking in the rest of the album. ‘But there’s no escaping, no escaping/ No escaping love/ And I feel like taking, feel like taking/ Feel like taking drugs.’ It reveals a hidden desperation behind the party-centred content of the previous songs. However, this energy quickly inverts in, ‘Movement,’ an explosive penultimate track with cacophonic production. With the context of the previous song, the energy can be interpreted as crazed or delirious, reflecting the changing moods of inebriation.

 

With sparse but expansive production and ballad-like lyricism, this poignant song portrays a versatility that is somewhat lacking in the rest of the album

‘You Can Never Go Home,’ is contrastingly simple, with a refrain harmonised with by Melody English. Again, it reveals a deeper level to the carefree image created by most of the songs in the album. The constant party that is New York is an essential, desperate escape, because he ‘can never go home.’ Here concludes an impressive, energy-filled album – a celebration of extremes. Although at points it can become reiterative, What’s Wrong With New York? reworks early 2000’s musical aesthetics to create something refreshingly one-of-a-kind in a climate of resurgent party culture.

 

7/10

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