Dear Prudence - New Waves

Naming your band after a song originally released by The Beatles and covered by Siouxsie and the Banshees is an almost guaranteed way of getting attention from Breaking More Waves. Yet that attention soon drifts away if the song isn’t up to scratch.

Thankfully Valentine, the debut single from the Brighton based Dear Prudence, with its New Order style bass guitar and feisty female vocals from the tattooed Madi Ponica that proclaim “Valentine, with a heart as black as mine, through lonely eyes, we'll watch the world from outside, valentine, just let the roses die,” commands our attention. It’s a strange concoction of sounds that mixes some of the sonics of the more alternative end of the 80’s new wave musical spectrum with plenty of added value mainstream sounds from the same decade. If that sounds like a mess, then don’t worry, it isn’t. Everything is absolutely fine.

There’s more of that New Order guitar sound on the b-side China Doll, which because Madi sings of being “like a china doll in my hands,” immediately makes us remember T’Pau. Now there’s a band you don’t see being referenced very often on new music blogs, even if our attempt to shoe-horn it in was a little awkward.

Dear Prudence have already been getting their name out into the big wide world, including a debut TV appearance on the BBC’s review show and have been confirmed to play Bristol’s leg of the Dot to Dot festival on May 3 and the Live at Leeds event on May 5. The single is released on May 7 through Carousel. 

Dear Prudence - Valentine

Dear Prudence - China Doll