NewDad – Safe EP

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Released: 2nd May 2025

NewDad have always excelled at making anxiety feel dreamy, but on ‘Safe’, they’ve mastered the art of strategic discomfort. The Galway quartet have traded their shoegaze security blanket for something more intriguing – like switching from your favourite worn-in Doc Martens to platform boots that make you just tall enough to see the horizon.

From the first notes, we’re clearly dealing with a different beast. The dreamy haze of their earlier releases hasn’t evaporated completely, but rather, it’s been sculpted into something more purposeful, and every song is the sort that reveals new details with each listen.

‘Entertainer’ emerges as an early highlight, building on synth-touched foundations while maintaining the band’s characteristic guitar work, creating a warmth that wraps around you like a familiar blanket at a house party you weren’t quite sure about attending.

The title-track showcases their confidence through rich instrumentation and carefully layered production, while the emotional core of the EP reveals itself on ‘Puzzle’, where the band prove they can handle weightier material without sacrificing momentum. There’s a grunge-waltz quality to its arrangement that feels both unexpected and entirely natural. 

‘Be Kind’ closes things out by stripping everything back to its essence. It’s here that NewDad’s evolution becomes most apparent – where once they might have hidden behind walls of reverb, they now let the space between notes do much of the heavy lifting.

This EP isn’t just safe – it’s calculated risk-taking from a band who’ve realised that true confidence is knowing exactly when to whisper rather than shout. NewDad aren’t just growing up; they’re growing interesting.