Dare's mission is to bring back sleaze and sex, but so far his music mostly feels like LARP. The deliciously meaty “Girls” kicked off Harrison Patrick Smith's electric clash revival, turning him overnight into a glossy It Boy magazine and a punching bag for critics exhausted by Dimes Square stagers. But last year's half-baked Sex The EP failed to live up to the hype. Now, after a bump in visibility for his production on Charli xcx's tight and sleazy “Guess,” Dare's debut album arrives in the form of a musical manifesto. The title, What's up with New York? it's a rhetorical question. Daredevil, with his used car salesman blazer, thundering bass and horny dance punk comedy, is here to rescue the city from its sexless pandemic slumber and make New York debauched again.
In 10 tracks, What's up with New York? it doubles down on Dare's catalog while doubling down on everything that made his music so unsettling. It's even noisier for LCD Soundsystem, but with a slimy, trashy edge. imagine James Murphy training as a pick-up artist. It pours out of desperation to sound edgy and cool like a New York legend rocker. Dare have talked about wanting to bring back the breakup, bring the offensive fun back to dance-rock. This could thrill if done right, and in some electrifying moments, Dare comes close. But the album largely hits like a contact high, a simulation of a chaotic night out. It's like BRAT for fashion consultants who brag about making the list.
What's up with New York? torn between typical Dare fare – high-libido hooks, throaty moans – and stabs at tender, post-bender profundity. He recycles the two best tracks from his EP, “Girls” and “Good Time,” which blasts the voluptuous synth bass and flashy songs into a wave of subtle electricity. “Movement” kicks the adrenaline into top monstrosity like “Fischerspooner”Emerge” rewired for dancefloor freaks. The tagline “I Destroyed Disco” is even more unforgiving, hinting at a perversion of Justice. It has some of Smith's most abusive lyrics—”I break records, glasses, faces, kick the whole world in the teeth with my untied laces”—but they work because he commits to the track. The dark bass like explosions of depth charge and culminates in a shock wave of beeps. File under electro-conflict.
More often than not, this music evokes only the vague feeling that you might have heard it before, in a more impressive interpretation, by a more innovative band. “All Night” has catchy vocals, but mostly feels like a groggy, drunken take on early MGMT. The goofy “You're Invited” — in which he repeats “You're invited” over a Rapture inspo beat — sounds like the tagline for the app set to disrupt the private event industry. The video for characterless “Perfume” indeed appears to be a fake advertisement, filled with monochrome thin models.
from our partners at https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-dare-whats-wrong-with-new-york
