NewDad – Altar – Album Review
by Killian Laher

For a band that only released their debut album at the start of 2024, a LOT has happened with NewDad since then.  The band have moved to London, and lost bass player Cara Joshi, who left the band earlier this year amidst talk of a new direction.  Well, fans of their debut album needn’t fear that the band have lightened up too much based on this album.  Although the album opens quietly with singer Julie Dawson singing over gently bubbling keyboards on Other Side, the song builds out gradually, adding guitar bit by bit before it opens out into a rocking tune.

There are plenty of tracks which could have featured on Madra, the gloom-dance anthems Heavyweight and Roobosh, and the moody yet bouncy shuffles Pretty and Everything I Wanted.  This latter tune is a highlight featuring some excellent guitar work from Sean O’Dowd and is probably the most fleshed-out song here.  Misery and Entertainer, while sounding like two sides of a coin, are both strangely uplifting rockers.  On the other hand, they are very effective when they slow it down on the likes of Sinking Kind of Feeling and Mr Cold Embrace.  The latter song, in different hands, could have ended up in cheesy ballad territory but the band handle the song with restraint and it works well.

In an interesting move, they have printed the lyrics in Irish and English on the lyric sheet.  The album plays very well as one piece, which can be a weakness as well as a strength, in that it can be difficult initially to distinguish each track from each other.  But it’s fair to say this album shows itself after a number of listens and is sure to resonate over the coming months.

Roobosh