“I’ve been carving another dream for myself.”
The Dangerous Summer have always thrived in instability, releasing some of their best work while the band themselves seemed on the verge of falling apart. When the band’s initial three-album run came to an end, internal conflict seemed to have reached a breaking point so strong that they seemed unlikely to ever return. However, the acclaim TDS had built up among diehard fans proved too strong to resist, and frontman AJ Perdomo revived the band in 2017. The band’s internal dynamics seemed to be on much more stable ground this time around, and this newly mature perspective peaked in 2019’s career highlight Mother Nature, which was a huge step forward into unexplored sonic territory, while still retaining the band’s signature lyrical vulnerability.
Despite changing record labels and undergoing another lineup shift in the years since Mother Nature, The Dangerous Summer largely continue their creative renaissance on their new album Coming Home. While rarely reaching the creative heights of their previous album, Coming Home is another solid entry in the band’s consistent discography, and proves that they can reliably turn personal strife and heartache into relatable pop punk anthems.
The high-energy title track roars out the gate as an instant highlight in The Dangerous Summer’s catalog, delivering punchy riffs and an instantly memorable chorus. It was a smart (if obvious) lead single choice, and sets the tone well for the 10 tracks to follow. Elsewhere, “Big Green Eyes” is a sparsely vulnerable acoustic cut that takes cues from Perdomo’s side project Broken Glowsticks. Stripping back the band’s signature instrumental interplay to its bare essentials allows for Perdomo’s lyrical confessions to take centre stage in one of the album’s most memorable cuts.
Conversely, “Dimensional Love” is a reminder of why this band’s core formula remains so effective. Dramatic piano stabs add weight to an uplifting singalong hook, as the lyrics tell a story of a relationship that can be overwhelming at times, but is ultimately worth the effort. However, other tracks such as “Someday” are dragged down by lyrics that can best be described as clumsy – a rather uncharacteristic pitfall for this band. The song tells the story of an unsteady relationship, seemingly plagued by infidelity and other character flaws. Yet in spite of this, Perdomo hopes that “Someday, I’ll learn to treat her right”. This certainly isn’t a bad concept for a song… yet the execution leaves much to be desired. Perdomo awkwardly compares the object of his affections to the women he’s cheated on her with by exclaiming that “She’s nothing like the ones out on the road”… especially since “She lets me go in her mouth”. How romantic.
That said, these are relatively minor pitfalls on what remains an overall solid addition to The Dangerous Summer’s growing body of work. While the band could stand to take a few more creative risks on their next release, they have yet to make a major misstep, and longtime fans are sure to find plenty of new anthems to sing along with on the band’s future tours.
6.5/10
Coming Home will be available on August 26th via Rude Records, and you can pre-order it here.