“You can’t spend your whole life inside,” The Dare leered in ‘Open Up’, the rallying cry that whisked his debut LP What’s Wrong with New York? into the bloodstream of downtown nightlife in the last week of summer 2024. The 27-minute project was an energetic walk-through of a night out, navigating the pre-drink energy, the drunken debauchery, and the hungover introspection with a cocktail of abrasive synths and carnal lyrics.
It was an ode to Bloghouse for the new wave of Brat disciples with equal measures of irony and indulgence. And now, with What’s Wrong with New York?: Afters, the deluxe edition released on the 20th June, The Dare keeps the night going just long enough for it to start falling apart. More than just an appendage to the debut, Afters sharpens the edges and turns a night out into a fully realised descent; the night’s still happening, but it’s drunker, darker, and twice as feral.
Harrison Patrick Smith, the face behind the suited and booted persona, signed off the standard version with the disillusioned ‘You Can Never Go Home’, laying bare a sense of finality and nihilism. But ‘LCA’ yanks the listener back into the havoc. Smith’s delivery doesn’t sing so much as he spits and snarls, his vocals blown-out and fractured alongside the pulsating beats, each sardonic line sounding either like a provocation or a punchline you’re not sure whether you’re supposed to laugh at: “I wanna fuck til’ we’re blue / I wanna live like ‘What would Amy fuckin’ Winehouse do?’” The high-wire lyrical brutality makes his record ‘Girls’ look modest, and pushes the image of The Dare to a new extreme. It’s explosive, and the jump between the two introduces the deluxe as the frenzied afterparty where the real chaos stirs.
‘Cheeky’ is where Afters catches its breath, but only just a bit. It swaps the feral, shouty desperation for a more playful flirtation, the jittery synth buzzing like an unplugged live jack amongst punchy drums with cocky talk-singing vocals. Lines like “I’m a rocker, you’re my stalker / had to block you on my phone” walk a tightrope between satire and sincerity. It’s energetic, layered, and recollective of early Uffie’s tongue-in-cheek attitude- a taste that either excites or exhausts, depending on your tolerance for style over substance. It works because it doesn’t try to disguise its chaos as cool, but rather revels in it. Where ‘LCA’ is the lurch toward the afterparty, ‘Cheeky’ is the trollied, wall-leaning conversation in the smoking area: charged, ridiculous, and entirely self-aware.
Akin to the standard, Afters takes an introspective turn with a cover of The Sound’s ‘I Can’t Escape Myself’, pulling the plug with a sonic hangover. Where the original is a brooding post-punk meditation on inner turmoil, the cover mirrors the industrial soundscape of Nine Inch Nails with a rhythm reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Someone Great’. It’s a standout reinterpretation of an underrated 80s tune- and whilst still a faithful love letter, it creatively reframes the track to be the inevitable hangxiety after a night out’s reckless abandon. “It seems like my shadow mocks every stride / I’ve got to live with what’s left inside” fittingly signs off an album that toes the tension between hedonism and vulnerability, capturing the fluctuation of nightlife with unashamed honesty- because after all, you can’t spend your whole life inside.
What’s Wrong with New York?: Afters is available on all streaming platforms.
Words by Sophie Jarvis
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