Text : Dennis de Waard
Translation : Bente van der Zalm

To start off with a cliché: we’re living in weird times. Bands here and there see their momentum go up in flames, tours are being cancelled, released albums lose their impact and breakthroughs are being postponed. But then there is DIRK., the indierockers from Belgium. With their debut album that is simply called ‘Album’ they already got a hold on a worrying sing-along hit with ‘Fuckup’ (“I only fuck things up when I hate myself, and I hate myself all the time”) and other delightfully wayward nineties indierock/noisepop à la Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and Weezer. But they broke through with their hit ‘Hit’. Suddenly all eyes turned towards DIRK., and the band kept scoring with new singles like ‘Stay Indoors’ and ‘Artline’.

The second album ‘Cracks in Common Sense’ displays DIRK.’s sound as we love to hear it (‘Artline’) and we can hear how the band starts to sound bigger and louder, and also catchier, than ever (‘Small Life’). The vocals are beautifully ugly, the guitar still pummel in all possible ways, but it sounds more polished without losing it’s character. So it’s a kind of DIRK. 2.0. Before you know it, DIRK. has run you over like a roaring machine. The term ‘difficult second’ doesn’t apply to DIRK. at all, they go on with what they were doing but this time at their very, very best. An album from the indie scene that makes you jealous and has an immensely big replay-factor.

Mayway Records