And everyone was hooked. Over the course of a few weeks, his 2022 single 'Girls' took the internet by storm, his monthly Spotify listeners quadrupled in numbers, his first tour sold out in minutes- and on the 6th September, he released his debut album, What’s Wrong with New York?.
Harrison Patrick Smith, a former substitute teacher by day and Freakquencies DJ by night, is an LA-born, Seattle-raised, NYC-dwelling musician. Previously the frontman of indie rock band Turtlenecked, he stripped the bleached-blonde hair and filed away his Gus Dapperton vinyls to rebrand as The Dare, an electroclash, dance punk alter-ego audiences are calling the face of the indie sleaze revival.
Ten tracks long, What’s Wrong with New York? is the successor to Smith’s controversial 2022 release The Sex EP with its jagged synths and snarling, sardonic vocals. It's an energetic love letter to New York nightlife penned through the lens of a night out’s emotional cycle. Smith fuses a perspective of detachment and cynicism towards identity through embracing electroclash essences, tangled with a modern twist. It’s deeply gritty, ever so horny, and hilariously playful.
Tracks like ‘Open Up’, ‘Elevation’, and ‘I Destroyed Disco’ flirt with sensuality, urgency, and irony, at times criticising popular culture, recalling Fischerspooner’s #1 and Peaches’ The Teaches of Peaches. ‘Elevation’ and ‘You Can Never Go Home’ pull their own weight of vulnerability and depth, with the former’s relentless rhythms building an urgent momentum and disillusioned vocals leaning into aloofness, and the latter being sonically sombre and moody, doting on themes of loss and nostalgia with a synth-wave touch.
The fleetingly 30-minute-long What’s Wrong with New York? isn’t genre-bending nor polished with its reliance on pioneering electroclash tropes. Each track is distinctive, yet not expansive; there’s a lack of innovation and the lyrics are admittedly uninventive. But, is that a bad thing when it comes to an album drawing inspiration from the club scene?
I don’t think so. Critics have responded to the release- with past critics having similar feedback for The Sex EP- as having half-baked lyrics with a sound that tries too hard. But, The Dare’s image is anchored with a wry sense of humour and commentary on superficiality, and thus the album makes for a cohesive, authentic piece with a hedonistic atmosphere.
Just listening to 'Girls' a single time- of which Smith has stated was originally written as a joke for his friends- backs up enough evidence that expecting The Dare’s music to have a genre-bending sound and avant-garde penmanship is completely missing the point. His discography is anchored in humour and raunchiness, cementing its place in targeting dance spaces.
I love the album, it’s a solid 4/5 for me. My personal favourites are ‘Moment’, ‘All Night’, and ‘Perfume’. I’m not convinced that an indie sleaze revival in 2024 is at all possible, but the return of the 2000s club nostalgia is extremely fun and energetic.
I think he’s with it.