It's All Downhill From Here. Dateline

It's All Downhill From Here, Dateline's second album, was already released in 2024. As I only heard about Dateline just over a week ago thanks to its support slot for The Beths at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, I decided to give the newest album of the band a chance. What I heard in Amsterdam went really down well, and luckily I can add that the album goes down the exact same way.

Dateline is a band, or it seems project is a better word, from Auckland, New Zealand. The constant in the band is singer-songwriter-guitarist Kate Everingham. On this album she's joined by Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa, Phoebe Johnson and Reuben McDonald. Recording duties were taken care of by The Beths' Jonathan Pearce, so that link is explained as well. Some of The Beths' strengths can certainly be heard here as well.

It's All Downhill From Here is an alternative and indie rock album. The music moves between straightforward indie rock right up to songs with a bite in them, where Everingham shows her teeth, just like she does on stage. "I don't want my daughter to see me like that", she told me after the show. As a member of the audience it totally impressive, almost close to dangerous.

It strikes me that the stage sound of Dateline is quite different from the sound on the record. The stage sound can be translucent a times, even like crystal glasses. So tremendously clear. On record the harmony vocals come across even more. On stage they are already impressive. Although on record Dateline sounds more like other indie bands, the quality of the songs lifts the album up and brings it in line with my live experience.

It's time to focus on one song. 'Hands' is a song that starts with a lo-fi intro before other instruments and Kate Everingham's voice join. The song seems to progress in slow but deliberate way. A few things happen though that make it stand out. First how the song is fleshed out slowly but surely. The harmony vocals that are well worked out. Finally, the veneer of accepted behaviour in society is stripped away for just a second here and there. Madness and anger seep through before the curtain is lowered immediately to cover it up. The way Everingham is able to play with her voice is masterful. The way the band can make a song like 'Home Flies' explode does the rest.

In between several songs there is some studio banter. No matter, this is about the songs. With It's All Downhill From Here Dateline shows that it is a band that deserves more attention over here than it gets so far. The album is of a level that came as a surprise to me. How is it possible that so much great music from New Zealand has reached in the past years and nobody pointed me to Dateline? It is beyond me. A great support show changed all that. So thank you, The Beths for bringing this band along. The question about New Zealand and the water remains unanswered but who cares if albums with a quality like It's All Downhill From Here comes from the country?

What remains is an obvious observation. The title of this album may be the opposite direction of where Dateline is going.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order It's All Downhill From Here here:

https://dateline.bandcamp.com/album/its-all-downhill-from-here