Review Summary: Next big thing or dime-a-dozen? You decide.
Irish band NewDad seem poised to be one of the next big things in indie, having already garnered upwards of 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners as of the release of their debut LP
Madra. It's easy to see why; the group has a clean, commercial style, somewhere at the intersection of many popular indie genres (they particularly bring to mind Wolf Alice’s dream pop-infused alt/indie rock, though NewDad's approach is a bit more streamlined and smooth than that band's). But herein lies the problem: there's next to nothing distinctive about the sound on display on
Madra, and the songwriting and lyricism generally fail to make up for the deficiencies elsewhere. These songs are, for the most part, pleasant, and would slot inoffensively in most indie/dream pop playlists, but as a complete package they tend to meld together due to a lack of memorable melodies and instrumental choices. The tracks that stand out most are those with some ill-advised attempts at more commercial/pop stylings, such as the terrible "Sickly Sweet" and the repetitive "Let Go." Still, there are some highlights, namely the dreamy, conflicted "Nosebleed," which features likely the album's best melodies and one of its stronger lyrical sentiments, and the closing title track, which contains the best-executed dynamics in the tracklist and a more involving atmosphere that ends things on a high note. The end product is a listenable album that nonetheless falls just short of being a good one, but there's enough potential here to suggest NewDad may not be just another dime-a-dozen indie band.
