Somewhere inside all of us, we are monsters. The difference between you and I and MXLONELY are that the Brooklyn rockers just call theirs out, and loudly at that. In the hidden corners of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, three of the band’s four core members — vocalist and synthesist Rae Haas, vocalist and guitarist Jake Harms, and bassist Gabriel Garman who’ve since been joined by drummer Andrew Rapp — would meet to discuss their own, be it in the form of substance abuse, depression, or the drugs they’ve been put on with the hope to rid them from all of that. One mask just leads to another being placed over it, however, and on their debut album, ALL MONSTERS, it’s as if they’re unafraid to show their true faces to the world even if it’s their ugliest side.

There’s a beauty to that vulnerability, and their music is perhaps not a reflection, but rather a refraction of that view in the mirror, Following their 2024 SPIT EP, they’ve since signed with Julia’s War for their first full-length where the Rubicon of modern shoegaze is but a specter over their shadow work. We see the shapes of noise rock sediment, the sublime melodicism of ’80s college rock, and cavernously-riffed post-hardcore that leave jagged edges poking and prodding out from their shifting outlines, like an intense therapy session with your tulpa that swaps out ambient new age in the background for head-splitting guitar pedals.

It leads to uncovering the aches and pains of growing up outside the binary through the grungy delirium of “Big Hips”, admissions of addictive habits teetering within the sea-sick motions of “Shape of An Angel”, purging those inner demons via drama maxxing on “All Monsters Go to Heaven”, and challenging neurodivergent freakouts to find new way forwards across silver metallic peaks on “Blue Ridge Mtns”. Haas and Harms share the heavy load in the trauma dump both singularly and feeding off one another’s pain. Maybe it doesn’t leave you feeling settled, but it sure does help shrug away whatever keeps you up at night rather than letting it continue to fester in the dark.

Highlights: “Big Hips”, “Shape Of An Angel”, “Blue Ridge Mtns”

MX LONELY’s ALL MONSTERS is available now on Julia’s War.

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