ALBUM REVIEW: Coming Home – The Dangerous Summer

August 22, 2022 Ellis Heasley

THE DANGEROUS SUMMER have been on a fine run of form since they returned from hiatus in late 2017. Picking up largely where they left off, their hearts firmly on sleeves, they’ve maintained a steady prolificism and quality over the past five years, with their latest album Coming Home now balancing the scales of pre and post-hiatus full-length studio releases at three apiece. It’s also their first record as a full four-piece since their return, with this yielding somewhat more mixed results than many will have hoped.

At least at first, it’s probably most helpful to break this album into a couple of quite noticeable chunks. It kicks off with a great run of emo-tinged anthems – arguably the fare we’ve come to expect from THE DANGEROUS SUMMER more than anything else. Opening tracks Coming Home and All I Ever Wanted Was A Chance To Know Myself both make loads of sense as singles, their driving energy and massive choruses ready-made for radios and arenas alike. Even Sideways after that – a comparatively more downbeat affair – stirs plenty in its listener, its chorus of “If only I could see through it all / I’m living in a bad way / I feel like I’ve been coming apart / And everything is sideways” among the album’s most beautiful and memorable lyrics of all. Dimensional Love fits the mould too – a high-energy banger that rounds out a stellar opening run.

It’s fifth track Big Green Eyes that presents the album’s first real turn however – albeit not an entirely surprising one. A simple acoustic ballad, it provides a sweet if somewhat generic change of pace, with bassist/vocalist AJ Perdomo showing off more of the vulnerability that has drawn plenty to THE DANGEROUS SUMMER over the years. Unfortunately however – and this is why we’re talking about the album in chunks – it heralds the arrival of what feels like a bit of a dip in momentum from there. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of the subsequent tracks – and the band definitely have plenty of previous with this relatively slower fare – but by the time we’ve had three in a row (Gold Star, Meet Me In The Morning and Polarity) even the occasional moments of energy and expanse struggle to lift the record out of perilously dreary territory.

Maybe that’s all a little harsh. Taken as an individual song for example, Meet Me In The Morning is still a rousing enough piece with a powerful final chorus, Polarity boasts some particularly lovely guitar work, and Perdomo’s confessional style remains inviting throughout. It’s just that perhaps a bit of a change-up with the sequencing or a couple more bangers could’ve made Coming Home far more impactful overall. Either way, it’s fortunate that Wide Open lifts the energy at the start of the album’s final third, leaving Someday and Goodbye to end the record on another pair of more emotional numbers that both hit the mark.

Ultimately then, how you feel about Coming Home will probably come down heavily on individual taste. If you prefer THE DANGEROUS SUMMER at their most intimate and earnest, then this may well be a contender for your new favourite of theirs. If however, you hit play on the first few tracks here and wanted the record to stick to that more high-energy territory, then this does become a somewhat frustrating affair. Either way, this album is far from a failure, and there are definitely moments of greatness on both sides of the equation, it’s just that if you’re looking for a decent introduction to THE DANGEROUS SUMMER then either of their previous two full-lengths, or a pre-hiatus release like Reach For The Sun, will likely serve you (and them) a lot better overall.

Rating: 6/10