Drink The Ocean LP (Ofgv)

Nothing else sounds like Drag Talk. On their debut album, Drink The Ocean, the L.A. band finds gauzy beauty in the fathomless chaos that surrounds us, their exquisite shoegaze guitars and Britpop melodicism skewed with Jutty Taylor's genre-fluid vocals.Harnessing '90s indie nostalgia to here-and-now emotional responses, Drag Talk's lush atmospherics, spacious beats, and hugely emotive hooks create something singular yet accessible and authentic. "I feel like we're hardcore punk dudes who love Oasis," offered guitarist Ross O'Carroll, whose pandemic home demos were the germ of the band in 2021.Drag Talk is a coming-together of like-minded friends with long, intertwined histories. O'Carroll and fellow guitarist Matt Ripp Bennett grew up together in Hawaii but had somehow never been in the same band. Taylor and drummer Hayden Scott (Awolnation, Paramore) were longtime bandmates in Grammy winning Swedish rock band Ghost. Third guitarist (yes, there are three) Neil Popkin played alongside Bennett in War Tapes, and even the band's producer, Tom Syrowski (The Killers, Mastodon, Pearl Jam), has been in their circle since the aughts.Drag Talk released their debut single, "Egyptian Flesh" in 2022 and the Dogs EP the following year. By the time they dropped follow-up EP Rosy Crown in 2024, they'd earned a cult following evidenced by sell-out shows on both coasts and a deal with MNRK Music Group. Due in September 2026, Drink The Ocean emerged from a period of personal tumult that almost broke the band, the album's very existence a bittersweet act of defiance.