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- Summary: The debut full-length release from Harrison Patrick Smith's solo project The Dare features contributions by Dylan Brady, Isaac Eiger, Chris Greatti, Emile Haynie, and Romil Hemnani.
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- Record Label: Republic
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 10
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Mixed: 4 out of 10
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Negative: 0 out of 10
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Sep 4, 2024Sonic debauchery laced with moments of introspection, The Dare’s debut is worth the hype.
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Sep 4, 2024His debut also conjures the rabble rousing of early Blur through a Peaches-meets-xcx lens. As a whole, ‘What’s Wrong With New York?’ is a beaming and brilliant moment for both The Dare and its inspired take on historical noughties pop.
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Sep 9, 2024What’s Wrong With New York? is a gift horse I wouldn’t dare look in the mouth: it’s euphoric, it’s massive, it’s funny, it’s blissfully unironic, it’s finally fucking pop. I wouldn’t overthink it.
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Sep 9, 2024What’s Wrong With New York? isn’t inventive or texturally weird enough to geek the analog synth heads, and its hooks aren’t massive or sticky enough to work as pure pop either. The embrace of pretentiousness and artifice comes at the expense of real emotional complexity and memorably witty writing.
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Sep 9, 2024Ultimately, the sense of pastiche, and the fact that it’s a bit one-note (even at just 31 minutes running time) counts against What’s Wrong With New York?
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Sep 6, 2024It’s tempting to tell Smith that Murphy wants his shtick back (along with his suit), but the pastiche is often effective, at least.
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Sep 4, 2024The flatness of their construction, despite refreshingly warm undertones, means the songs easily collapse beneath the weight of Smith's carefully constructed persona, losing the plot on his apparent quest to let loose. Where they might blossom, the album's new cuts mostly bore holes into themselves.