This past Friday, Harrison Patrick Smith, professionally known as The Dare, released a new single, “LCA.” The single comes to promote the release of the “Afters” edition of his 2024 debut album “What’s Wrong With New York?” that will feature three new tracks.
The acronym in the single’s title stands for “lights, camera, action,” which is the chorus of the bassy club track.
The song is loud and overwhelming, designed for the dance floor. This fits right in with the original 10-track album “LCA” is being added to. “What’s Wrong With New York?” features many dance songs but has a few relatively softer numbers that feel a little less like you’d hear them at a club.
One thing I love about Smith’s work as The Dare is his seemingly ridiculous lyrics — a personal favorite is his song “Perfume,” which is literally about the woman’s perfume Smith’s been wearing.
“LCA” is not lacking in this type of absurd lyricism. We are introduced to this in the first verse with Smith yelling into the mic, “I wanna turn your fucking head into a trampoline.”
Do I have any idea what this means? Nope, but I find it fun and on-brand for The Dare, regardless.
He follows this up in the second verse with lines like “I wanna spit in your drink,” “I wanna buy you some shoes” and “I wanna kiss you till I realize it’s a lookalike.”
If you know anything about The Dare, it’s probably his proclivity for dressing up in suits and skinny black ties, his steep rise in the club music scene and that he “likes the girls that do drugs,” as he proclaims in his popular track “Girls.”
But this has not always been the case. Smith has been releasing music as Turtlenecked since 2016. During the pandemic, Smith began experimenting and found The Dare’s sound in electronic synth music, different from Turtlenecked’s indie tunes.
Since the release of the notoriously raunchy track “Girls” on his “The Sex EP” in 2023, Smith got little notability until his mention and production work on Charli XCX’s “Guess” from one of her many iterations of the iconic summer 2024 “BRAT” album.
Since then, Smith has risen to fame in the club scene with his snazzy black tie. The article of clothing even gets a mention in “LCA.”
“LCA” is just the latest from Smith and I’m excited to see what the rest of “What’s Wrong With New York?: Afters” sounds like and beyond.
5/5 stars
jhammer@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @itsthedare, Instagram
