Harrison Patrick Smith, the producer-singer-songwriter behind The Dare, has seen a meteoric rise to notoriety in recent months. Since producing Charli XCX’s Guess (which recently got a Billie Eilish remix and subsequent music video) and making a guest appearance to DJ at Charli’s infamous Boiler Room set. Having garnered the attention of the growing hyper-pop audience that has recently been pushed into the mainstream, all eyes turned back to Smith’s 2023 release, The Sex EP. The combination of the ridiculously horny, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, paired with the catchy, electronic production caused the EP’s smash-hit, Girls, to blow up on TikTok. Capitalising upon the track’s sudden surge in popularity, as well as the LCD Soundsystem comparisons that came with it, The Dare presents his debut full-length project, “What’s Wrong with New York?”.
The album begins with Open Up, giving those who had listened to The Sex EP more of what they had come to expect from The Dare. While the instrumental indubitably builds energy, the record’s intro comes off as a poorly-executed attempt to replicate the success of Girls. Here, The Dare opts back in to the sleezy lyrical style that helped guarantee the success the aforementioned lead single, but unfortunately for Smith it rather loses its humour on this occasion, veering into cringe territory with lyrics such as “free your mind and your ass will follow” that tend to drag the listener out of the track.
Thankfully, things pick up on the record with a flurry of three back-to-back singles that are all marked improvements upon the introductory effort. Good Time is a fun, energetic single that capitalises on the contrast between the Dare’s patented shouty 2000s-dance-punk style delivery on the verses and the low-key, near-whispered chorus to great effect. The track’s energy is maintained throughout by occasional cowbell hits, and the bassline, which is given its moment to shine on the bridge, is excellent.
Perfume continues the album’s playful, LCD Soundysem-esque lyrical approach, following a similar recipe to the previous track, with its distorted bassline in the post-chorus and Smith’s characteristic delivery, this time with genuinely witty lyrics. This is followed by Girls, the album’s breakout hit which we have already discussed. Whilst this three-song run certainly marks an improvement in the quality of the record, all of the tracks on the opening leg notably follow a similar recipe that threatens to stylistically pigeon-hole Smith early on.
The first attempt to branch out sonically comes on I Destroyed Disco with its frenetic, rapid-fire drums and futuristic instrumental. Whilst the verses raise the energy, I can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by the simplistic chants on the chorus that are draped in robotic vocal effects. On the other hand, the instrumental on the bridge is a fun little touch that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Aphex Twin’s 2001 LP Drukqs.
You’re Invited, another single, is perhaps the weakest of the pre-release tracks. Once again, the chorus falls flat due to its repetitive nature, failing to achieve its desired trance-like effect and instead bordering on tedium. The electric guitar-driven production here does provide a welcome refreshment, helping to prevent the album becoming sonically stale as it progressed towards its final leg.
The album’s final leg introduces four new tracks, beginning with All Night. Here, The Dare attempts to sing, with mixed results. However, the track is generally pretty good fun and the chorus feels like something straight off of an early MGMT record. Unfortunately the follow-up Elevation is not as effective. Whilst the atmospheric instrumental successfully conjures the vibe of a late-night city walk, the lyrics and delivery let the track down.
Movement sees a return to the simplistic, repetitive chorus and heavy dance instrumental recipe that has proved fruitful for Smith thus far (for the most part). The song is fine, if a bit derivative at this stage, but the whispered delivery on the chorus feels out of place and unfortunately the extremely crunched out bass on the outro suffers from a similar problem.
The album closes with You Can Never Go Home, where The Dare attempts to get introspective. This weird narrative switch-up feels out of place at this point of the record and slightly disingenuous, with lyrics that fail to connect. This probably isn’t helped by the comically poor singing, both of which Smith even addresses in the track’s lyrics (“Sometimes I only sing one note. Sometimes I steal what others wrote.”)
In conclusion, What’s Wrong with New York? is a hit-or-miss debut. Most of the standout tracks (of which there are a considerable amount considering the LP’s brevity) have already been heard as singles or on various EPs. While The Dare attempts to showcase versatility, the majority of the record’s successful songs follow a similar recipe of dance instrumentals, LCD Soundystem-inspired lyrical content paired with Smith’s rather one-note vocal delivery. When Smith veers outside of this comfort zone, the results tend to fall flat.
To his credit, Smith knows to keep things concise – the album runs for just 10 tracks and 27 minutes. While there are certainly some fun tracks with lots of replay value within, What’s Wrong with New York? isn’t generally an album to write home about. It shows promise but ultimately leaves listeners wanting more consistency and depth from The Dare’s future endeavours.
This album is fun but wildly inconsistent, 6/10.
Theo Aveline 