Photo by Lizzy Kweller

Ben Kweller humbly remains one of the great, under-heralded indie rock heroes of the past 20 years. Listen to MJ Lenderman and you can hear the influence of the Radish wunderkind’s breakthrough solo debut Sha Sha bleeding through the fuzz. Life ain’t always fair, though, and Kweller’s been reeling with that notion since the tragic death of his son, Dorian, in 2023. Into music Kweller turned, and whatever came out is what we’ll be hearing on his first new music since that day on Dorian’s 19th birthday with the release of Cover the Mirrors. It’ll feature this year’s aforementioned alt-country It kid in Lenderman as well as his recent collaborator in Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield. That’s pretty cool, but its lead single “Optimystic” gives his energy deserved space to go off. It’s Kweller and his band bleeding raw emotion into a pessimistic fit, full of blown out and fuzzed up power-pop crackle which will reacquaint listeners current and new to his winning slacker rock formula. “Happiness / Wanna diе / Death kiss / Get high / Stay high / Close your hеart / Back to start /And your brains go / Pow!,” his mind races through the livewire. He may not be in this very moment, but these pages are feeling optimistic this one’s going to hit different.

Ben Kweller’s Cover the Mirrors will be released May 30th on The Noise Company.