The Dare, also known as Turtlenecked, recently introduced the masses to his world of indie sleaze-infused electronic dance music after producing one of the biggest hits off of the Charlie XCX album, “Guess.”.
What’s Wrong with New York is The Dare’s first album known as the Dare. The artist’s previous artistic project known as Turtlenecked was an exploration of sound, investigating the alternative-indie rock style with some electronica sprinkled throughout. What’s Wrong with New York feels like the perfect precursor to Charli XCX’s brat.
The leading track of this album, “Open Up,” introduces the audience to the emphatically sleazy album. It dares you to have an open mind and embrace the music as a whole. The electric guitar elevates a disco beat, taking inspiration from new-wave music. It crosses house beats and rock, embodying the attitude of a rockstar’s anticipated party lifestyle.
“Good Time” follows with sawtooth wave sounding bass. This song screams out, “Oh, Let’s have some fun tonight!” while being self-deprecating enough for listeners to not get distracted. This song paints a picture of a club atmosphere, in the dark and partying with strangers, broken and hedonistic despite everything else.
“Perfume” is a song about cheap perfume and all the things that go with it. An electric guitar screams over the lyrics, which isn’t a complaint, but makes this song feel a little overwhelming. There’s so much going on throughout the album, and this song is the epitome of that.
“Girls” is easily the most popular song off of this album. It’s seen success in multiple niche communities over the past two years, including on TikTok nearing the end of this last summer. There’s a simple beat behind the lyrics describing every type of girl the Dare seems to be interested in. I don’t think it matters who or what the girl looks like, but just the fact that he enjoys femininity. It remains a testament to house music, despite having elements of funk and pop.
“I Destroyed Disco” fronts bass and techno. This song lacks lyrical depth, but features my favorite lyric in the album, “What’s a bigger to a rocker? What’s a rocker to The Dare?” This song is the modern equivalent of disco music, both composed of dance-centric rhythms and prolonged dance break instrumentals, but this song incorporates a heavier bass-face-inducing rave element that traditional disco doesn’t.
“You’re Invited” is a change of pace from the rest of this album. It’s reminiscent of a more traditional dance song with a steady dance beat, while The Dare’s voice provides more momentum than the actual rhythm of the song. The tempo doesn’t change but finds other ways to escalate. The electric guitar featured in this song provides perfect accents to the steady rhythms similar to that of Escort’s dance music. It lands somewhere between Escort and Duck Sauce in terms of sound, but is uniquely The Dare.
“All Night” is another song about being young and reckless with little to no responsibility. It’s hopeful with a melody that reminds you of Icona Pop’s “I Love It”. It embraces being scared with hopeful under and overtones. This song manages to fit perfectly within the sonic landscape of the indie-sleaze-edm picture this album paints, while also managing to feel different from every other song on the tracklist..
“Elevation” is perfectly 80s. It has little to no chord resolution, establishing a tense, yet nostalgic feel to the whole song. It feels self-indulgent, yet pitiful and remorseful. This song nearly feels like it doesn’t belong on the album, and yet is my favorite. Focusing more on lyricism and vocals than the rest of the album,the instrumentals pair perfectly with an overall feeling of dread within the song. It’s a ballad about wanting to forget about someone by any means necessary but knowing any self-induced haze won’t erase the memories of a love lost.
“Movement” gets the album back on track to the club atmosphere. It’s fast-paced, and feels like it belongs in a racing video game. It is a song to rave and mosh to. I can’t imagine a dance move that would coincide with this song, but thrashing around may do the trick. The Dare progressively gets louder and synth screams in your face, while the bass in this song gets more fast-paced and aggressive. I don’t think there’s a way to listen to this song casually.
“You Can Never Go Home” is the final track on this album featuring Melody English. This song roots the album in reality, its lyrics describing the cycles of destruction and self-loathing that come with partying. It features synth and an overwhelming sense of dread similar to the feeling evoked by “Elevation”. Melody English is the first identifiable feminine voice that I imagine as an inner monologue to the Dare throughout this song.
This album is shameless yet full of shame, self-deprecating yet self-confident, deep yet shallow. It’s a future club classic. The Dare produced the majority of this album, and you can feel all of the energy and passion put into the album. It’s risqué, fun, and rooted in escaping reality but being faced with it at every corner. It discusses the pros and cons of the party lifestyle while advertising it as an escape from consequences. I’m excited to see what else comes from The Dare. From Charli XCX’s shoutouts to showing up at the Boiler Room, The Dare is set to be a name in music.