Despite the inferno that ushered in September, brat summer is over. Nevertheless, videos of Charli xcx DJing in packed clubs continue to garner hundreds of thousands of likes. However, if you check the comments, most people are only talking about one thing: who is that tall, skinny man next to Charli, dressed in a suit and tie like he’s ready for his bar mitzvah? That dapper young man is The Dare, better known as the producer behind Charli’s “Guess” and the creator of the recent viral hit song, “Girls.”

Despite his sudden rise to fame this past summer, The Dare has been in the music scene since 2022, when “Girls” dropped as his debut single. It now boasts over 18 million listens on Spotify. Capitalizing off his recent success, The Dare’s first album, “What’s Wrong With New York?,” released Sept. 6, ushering in six new songs to join four previously released singles.

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The pressure was on for his independent project to carry on the widespread love and success accrued with “Guess.” Despite being such a short record, the album continues The Dare’s legacy of making exciting and dynamic music that gets people moving in and out of the club.

Tracks like “Open Up” and “Good Time” match the 2010s-time-capsule sound of “Girls” with their electric production layered on funky riffs that listeners can’t help but dance to. With songs like these along with single “Perfume,” The Dare has declared a niche for himself within the pop genre. “Recession pop” has made a massive comeback in popular music, and yet men are few and far between within the resurgence of house and synth-based party anthems.

For fans of “BRAT,” this album also features some heavily produced songs that beg the question, “Can a song be overproduced if overproduction is your brand?” In songs like “I Destroyed Disco” and “You’re Invited,” it’s hard to find a solid answer to that question as listeners are overwhelmed with densely packed bridges that are so complex that they would deafen a Victorian child on the spot.

However, The Dare’s tell-tale production style comes across as charming and cheeky rather than overambitious, especially as he makes subtle references to his need to crank up the bass in all of his songs during “I Destroyed Disco” when he asks, “Wait, does anyone know where the bass is?”

With these light-hearted hits cementing his pre-established persona as a club classic factory, the second half of the album explores his unique voice as an artist and offers up a new look into the potential of The Dare’s style. “All Night” features more subtle vocals and relatively earnest lyrics that complement the warm tones of the synths that span throughout the song, though especially during the chorus. It’s also one of the longer tracks in the album at three minutes and 53 seconds, breaking up that short and sweet pattern of two-minute songs.

He continues this shift in pace with the longest song, “Elevation,” also spanning about four minutes. It’s noticeably moodier than its predecessors from the onset, with a lack of immediate payoff in the form of a tachycardic beat. “Elevation” feels like what the album has been building to with more emotional production and reflective lyrics.

The restraint of the first half of the song leads to a more vocally focused performance that creates tension as the production slowly kicks in and the bridge heightens the intensity of the track. With no apparent beat drop, the tension never resolves, marking a successful departure from his typically straightforward formula of carefree dance hits, with poppy beats that run throughout the entire song.

In order to alleviate some of the tension built by “Elevation,” The Dare follows it up with “Movement,” a track that “BRAT” fans everywhere can get behind. Though it maintains some intensity with its heavy bass, the song’s beat and lyrics are meant for … well, movement.

It serves as a light precursor to the more slow-building finale, “You Can Never Go Home,” which has drama baked into the beginning of the song with its somewhat tentative intro of acoustic drums and electric guitar. With the steady development of the song contrasting the immediacy of the rest of the album without weighty emotionality, “You Can Never Go Home” sticks the landing. “What’s Wrong With New York?” is a killer debut album that cements The Dare as a rising artist to watch as he continues to discover his sound.