Diary – Keep Comin’ Up
Brooklyn quintet Diary have announced their debut full-length, “Spiral Bound”, due September 4 on Kanine Records. The first single, “Keep Comin’ Up”, is produced by Bodega’s Ben Hozie, and it’s a clear step up from the band’s earlier work: jangly guitar pop with one foot in Madchester and the other in shoegaze haze.
The lineup is Kevin Bendis on vocals, Chris Croarkin on guitar, Adam Sachs on drums, Jessica Dye (also of High Waisted) on vocals and guitar, and Yan Kogan (also of Two Man Giant Squid) on bass. They’ve been at this for a while: two EPs, “Speedboat” in 2024 and “The Cutting Garden” in 2022, plus a run of singles and tours on both sides of the Atlantic. None of that quite prepared me for how confidently “Keep Comin’ Up” hooks into the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays sound. Croarkin’s guitar is fuzzed out and smeared across the mix, Bendis sings with a kind of woozy swagger, and the rhythm section keeps things grooving rather than just driving forward.
The video, directed by Sam Blieden, leans into 1960s New York art-scene imagery, it’s a fitting match for a song built on that loose, druggy energy.
It’s a strong first taste of a debut album. If “Keep Comin’ Up” is any indication, “Spiral Bound” is going to be one of the better Britpop-leaning records to come out of New York this year.
