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At long last, as a follow up to the 7" on the band's own Charm School label a few years back, we are granted the debut 12" by Boston's DAME. Though currently spread out geographically, the quintet were able to capture these modern classic tracks of post punk / gothic brilliance at Side Two Studios before the world turned upside down on us all. Equal parts melancholic and haunting, these seven tracks permeate the deepest corners of your psyche, refusing to vacate for quite some time. Each record comes in a full color jacket along with a fold out 24" x 24" poster insert, both of which feature art by guitarist Anna Cataldo.
Our take: We carried the debut 7” from Boston’s Dame back in 2017, and now we get their debut LP. Despite the long gap, the sound is similar: brooding pop-goth with a rough and raw underground punk aesthetic. I imagine Dame takes inspiration from the same groups as similar bands—the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Chameleons, etc.—but they have their own take on the sound. The playing is loose and raw, and when they speed things up on the closing track, “Parlor Games,” they sound a lot like the first Iceage album, back when that band had a loose and ethereal style. Both the guitarist and the vocalist have a knack for straightforward melodies, and the most interesting parts of the LP are when those instruments weave through one another and create something greater than the sum of their parts. While there are a lot of players in this post-punk game, Dame’s punky sense of melody and scrappy playing style make them stand out from the pack.