Instead of merely honoring bandmate and cousin in guitarist Tavish Maloney on 2022’s sore thumb, Jade Lilitri decided to memorialize him in the way his presence was always felt in the transcendent Long Beach, NY emo rock band’s sound. The band’s fourth full-length album was recorded across a month before Maloney‘s passing, and furthered his spirit by embracing an inner weirdness more outwardly with an unfettered crucial hang that let much of the weight of the world which 2019’s breakthrough, basking on the glow, shouldered. Essentially, letting loose revealed the band’s pop-centricities can still get lit in lieu of adulting’s stranger surroundings. life till bones contends with the hereafter of those emotions in a different light.

What’s new with Jade Lilitri this time around? The grief of losing Maloney remains a specter in his thoughts, and when it comes to romance, he’s still the king of fumbles. You wouldn’t guess it by the buzz of emo-powered pop he alongside guitarist Eddy Rodriguez, drummer Jordan Krimston, and returning early years producer Billy Mannino have further perfected. oso oso keep Maloney’s free-wheeling energy in their hearts here in the way they makes contending with existential decay beam like sunshine, yet they’ve gotten so damn good at packing in filler-free hooks that even a stripped back jam like “seesaw” bobbles around your head in an infinite loop. A standout like “that’s what time does” may have Lilitri owing a bit of influence to Aughts indie polish bleeding into their formula, but there’s also something to be said of a storied tradition in how the emotive rock and power-pop collision makes for the kind of creative intersection in existential reveries and shattered glass worlds where a band lives their best life through it.

Highlights: “that’s what time does”, “seesaw”, “other people’s stories”

oso oso’s life till bones is available now on Yunahon Entertainment LLC.