Album Review: Dream, Believe, Achieve

Dream, Believe, Achieve is the third album from Tāmaki Makaurau socialist punks Dick Move, and arguably the most important local album of 2025. The lyrics alone could be read as a manifesto against the current political shitstorm, where moneygrubbing suits walk all over hard scrabbling citizens on the daily. There’s anger – in Fuck It, Scared Old Men, and Nurses (for example) – but there’s also determination, an affirmative nod to the everyday people who keep things running in spite of the hate, and an energy that instils masses of hope. There’s flat-out ebullience in the face of it all too – like Karanga-a-Hape, on which bassist and Whammy! Bar co-owner Lulu Macrae gives as much to the song as she does to the street it’s named for. 

First single Fuck It landed with part one of a freaky two-parter video directed by repeat band collaborator Stella Reid. I’d happily quote every punch-thrust lyric singer Lucy Suttor smashes over the narrative recipient’s head, but (in the name of brevity) will settle for:

“What do you want from me? / A slut and a mother / I’d like to see you get ahead / in a system built to fuck ya…”

It’s a firm middle finger to the kind of barbed wire bullyboy behaviour women spend tiresome chunks of their lives trying to wriggle out of unscathed…

“All of me belongs to me / My bod, my voice, my tits / But still I have to walk home with my keys clenched in my fist / Fuck it!”

Hariet Ellis’s mean as surf guitar washes over this like a tsunami, and it’s an awesomely dominant feature of the Dick Move sound. 

The album’s title is lifted from second single (and the continuation of the Fuck It video narrative) Nurses, subverting its self-indulgent self-help vibes into an outfacing rally cry for a rebuild of a world that pulls together to care about each other. 

Lyric, “When the government chooses / landlords over nurses…” shows them lifting the issues that incense the better part of a nation straight from our daily news feeds. 

In third single, Scared Old Men, the keys-in-fist self-defence technique (which also featured on the cover of the Fuck It single) pops up again in another chilling Reid video, highlighted as a preservation technique that predates current generations. Same as it ever was, Suttor’s closing look seems to say.

Singles aside, the whole thing feels like a hardcore hit-fest. Try Hard flips the negative connotations of the try hard label, with a call for collective effort in the glow of the everyday dumpster fire where the bits of our broken system burn. 

“You try hard for me and I’ll try hard for you,” Suttor exhorts. “The world’s fucked, mate / It’s all we can do”

The strident scent of Dick Move’s beloved Amyl and the Sniffers is all over Shut Your Mouth. When I heard A&S had been nominated for a Best Rock Performance Grammy for the asskickin’ “U Should Not Be Doing That” this year, I slipped into a fantasy about Dick Move following in their footsteps, tearing a hole in the Crypto.com Arena stage, and feeding the pieces to the industry. There are many times a day one might make use of the lyrics: “You can’t speak for us / You don’t speak to me…” or, “Shut your mouth when you’re talking to me…,” particularly in that context. 

It’s a just shame one couldn’t benefit from guitarist Justin Rendell backing them up on call, because he’s certainly good for it. One person in particular would be my first target, but he’s addressed more directly in Bludger, which has been widely introduced as a song about “the Prime Minister of New Zealand”. 

“You stick to your plan / You take what you can / Money. Culture. Language. Land”. 

Seems like documentary speak to me. Let’s all get behind Dick Move’s better plan to Dream, Believe, Achieve. Thirteen songs in 25 minutes means there’s no excuse not to fit reciting these spiky mantras in on the daily – and that’s an order. 

A bit of a sad postscript – which appears to be due amicable circumstance – is that this album will be the last one on which smashing Luke Boyes will be drumming. He’s been such a force, and (to quote Up The Bus) deserves much appreciation. So, Mr Boyes: “Thank you, driver.”