Hardly Art (label)
25 July 2019 (released)
25 July 2019
In these hyper-modern times where curated electronic archives of existence stall progress and halt momentum, where our ‘selves’ permanently look back out at us, is wanting to go back preferable to looking ahead? To misparaphrase Neil Sedaka ‘Growing up is hard to do’
Seattle threesome Dude York (Claire England, Peter Richards and Andrew Hall) deliver an album in thrall to the wistful hues of nostalgia and the sense of what youth sensed was a fertile future is now a rose-tinted retrospective, the cultural artefacts that once dominated (e.g. FM radio pop’s fixing of time, place and space) and the ennui of thinking all our best times are behind us. For England in particular this is an opportunity to retroactively insert a female presence into that era’s male-heavy soundscapes.
Thematically encapsulating the fleeting follies of flirtatious fraternising (‘How it goes’), the resultant swoon from attraction’s rules collapsing (‘I’m the 1 4 U’) and on ‘15’ (a less wryly sardonic Stephen Malkmus) the essence of adolescence, that pivotal crossroads of life, where uncharted paths promise the Earth and time’s gradual elapsing reveals the true nature of clock watching.
The brilliantly indie-poppy (that evokes San Franciscan tunesmiths Scissors for Lefty) ‘Box’ has the lament ‘I’ll never love again’, an ode to woe that articulates that feeling of endings with no sight of beginnings, left and bereft with nowhere to go … not even your phone offers an avenue.
Sonically alternating from riot grrrrlish dervish dancing to power-punk prancing a la Weezer with ‘Unexpected’ channeling The Clash’s ‘Spanish Bombs’ across to mid-1980s crossover alternative acts such as The Cure or the esoterica roster of Sarah Records this harking back to days gone by answers the conundrum: nostalgia is what it used to be - the same as it ever was.
On ‘Falling’ Dude York exemplify it’s the getting back up where the real lessons are learned.
