By Maria Lubanovic, Staff Writer
[Hardly Art, 2017]
Rating: 8.5/10

Key Tracks: “Tonight”, “The Way I Feel”, “Love Is”

Sincerely is Dude York’s sophomore album. The trio is back with perfect pop-rock sound, featuring punchy guitars and lyrics that focus on self-love and working together.

The album opens with “Black Jack”, a guitar-driven masterpiece about going outside their comfort zone and reaching out to other people for help. This is followed by “The Way I Feel”, a cry out about feeling invisible and blending into the environment, while also trying to stand out and get help. The guitar solo and the drum backing keep it from feeling too sad and angry, which becomes one of the biggest strengths of this album.

“Life Worth Living PT 2” almost sounds like a Weezer track, especially in the chorus and the guitar and bass riffs. “Paralyzed” is the most punk sounding track on the album, especially in the smashing drums and the guitar solo.

Shout out to this bass player, Claire England, she rocks. She sings lead vocals for the tracks “Tonight” and “Love Is”, which both feature strong bass riffs and lyrics that focus on a boy that she knows she shouldn’t be with but wants anyways, all while dealing with depression. This is all sandwiched between some banging guitar solos. Damn you, bad boys, we have to thank you for your one and only contribution to society: better rock music.

However, there are some strange moments that distract from the rest of the record, like “Sincerely i”, which is just soft electronic music mixed with a phone message about what is in Coca-Cola. The last minute of “Giving Up” is dissonant white noise, and the interlude “Sincerely ii” is 20 seconds of music and 6 seconds of a sound that is scraping over a block of gray sound.

This album has range, it’s cohesive, and it delivers on the themes of help and teamwork, as the band is a well-oiled machine of glorious guitar, strong vocals and lyrics. Sincerely acts as a triumph for this band.