The new record from Dude York, Falling, drops on Hardly Art on Friday. It is, frankly, an album that's absurdly easy to enjoy. The band's last long-player, 2017's Sincerely, was good, don't get me wrong, but Falling is so much better. And what's here is such a nice distillation of so many strands of indie-rock that it would be impossible for someone to not find something to embrace on this one.
While a few numbers here, like "I'm The 1 4 U" and "Only Wish" serve up the sort of crunchy hooks one can recognize as nice holdovers from the Nineties, other tracks here, like "Unexpected" and "Let Down", manage to sound fresh. Sure, there are bits here that seem familiar, like the pieces of old Liz Phair or Veruca Salt compositions stitched up all over again in those two cuts and others, but there are also loads of things that make this all feel exciting again. Dude York -- Claire England, Peter Richards, and Andrew Hall -- turn a number like the title track into the sort of thing that owes as much to Juliana Hatfield as it does to Bleached, the bits from the glory days of indie rubbing up against the flecks of the current brand in the stew that makes up this album. And to their credit, the players switch things up at times on Falling, with "How It Goes" and "Making Sense" being mid-tempo rockers that are full of heart, and which offer proof that this band can modulate their approach a bit. Dude York this time around attack this material with nary a trace of ironic distance, and the overall effect on this fine album is one of a band coming into its own finally, and one where the material equals the ambition of the musicians.
Falling is out on Friday via Hardly Art.
More details on Dude York via the band's official Facebook page, or the official website for the band.
[Photo: Eleanor Petry]