NewDad’s ‘Safe’: Big hooks, bold moves and a gaze towards greatness
With their signature blend of beauty and bite, the Galway band’s latest EP is anything but safe.
Photo: Peter Eason Daniels
Stacked with visceral songwriting and haunting shoegaze soundscapes, NewDad’s debut album Madra firmly established the Galway band as not just ones to watch, but future indie stars. Blending classic 90s aesthetics with a fresh emotional punch, Madra attracted a diverse and still-growing audience, delivering a debut as formidable as fans had always hoped.
Now, on their latest EP Safe, NewDad are taking a hefty leap forward, pushing their sound into bolder, more confident territory, without losing the beauty, bite and scuffed-up shoegaze style they’ve become known for.
Threading influences from Pavement to Sonic Youth into their trademark hazy sound, NewDad’s dream-pop and shoegaze foundations blur and bloom into something sharper and freer on Safe, as moments of weightlessness give way to sudden, powerful waves of emotion, like ripples breaking the stillness of an endless sea.
Opening with the seductively hooky Entertainer, NewDad effortlessly weave lush guitars, chest-thudding basslines and shimmering electronic flourishes into a euphoric surge of freedom that somehow feels both expansive and intimate. As the song’s stomping chorus kicks in with full force, it’s easy to imagine an entire room getting caught up in its embrace; the collective energy building as everyone lets loose, swept away by the track’s irresistible momentum.
The title track Safe offers another mesmerising moment on the EP; its melodies and themes of self-understanding lingering long after the final note fades. Like much of the EP, it leans a little closer to the pop world than Madra, with its soaring chorus bursting open towards the end in yet another testament to just how live-ready this record feels.
Puzzle then drags things to a deeper, heavier place, its dense wall of sound and trudging basslines adding a guttural weight, before NewDad close the EP on a high with the stunning slow-burn of Be Kind. Following a hushed, atmospheric intro that allows Julie Dawson’s ethereal vocals to twist and turn through lyrical vulnerability, strings slowly tug at heartstrings as they tumble into a breathtakingly cinematic crescendo; the music swelling to a magnificent peak before it all comes to a haunting, gut-wrenching end.
Throughout Safe, NewDad showcase a newfound confidence and cohesion, seamlessly blending their signature sound with bold new elements. They repeatedly prove that they’re not just a band doing exactly what they want; they’re doing it beautifully. As a result, NewDad are no longer just a promising new voice in shoegaze; they’re one of its most exciting forces.
Safe is out now via A Fair Youth.