“No one wants to be in a band and share success these days,” Liam Gallagher grumped recently. “It’s all ‘me me me’ solo stars.” Yet despite the financial cost and social media individualism, the rock band isn’t dead yet. Particularly in Ireland: Sprints, the Murder Capital, Fontaines DC and Just Mustard have all released strong albums recently. Galway alt-rockers NewDad are the latest in that lineup.
Now in their early 20s, the foursome got together at school when singer-guitarist Julie Dawson didn’t fancy performing solo in music class. After self-releasing a string of singles, they have now made their major-label debut album – in the studio where Oasis recorded Morning Glory. Madra (Irish for “dog”) doesn’t include the early flashes of brilliance of shimmeringly beautiful 2020 single Blue, but the band’s music is more potent now – a tide rather than a wash of sound.
NewDad find a winning immediacy and intimacy amid existential angst that’s reminiscent of the Cure, Wolf Alice or New Order – particularly thanks to Dawson’s deadpan singing style, its candyfloss fragility concealing vicious lyrics. Angel, Madra’s excellent first track, begins: “You’re sweet, but I’m sick/ I hurt myself for kicks.” As Dawson told Dork magazine, “a lot of the album touches on difficult relationships, either with other people or with yourself”. Her dispatches from the desperate hours are a balm for the bruises those relationships bring.
Madra is out on 26 January on Fair Youth/Atlantic. NewDad tour the UK from 31 January to 5 March
