The Fat Angel Sings

Third album from Austin, Texas indie pop duo Hovvdy! Following their excellent previous albums Taster and Cranberry on Double Double Whammy. Hovvdy’s music is the sonic equivalent of a hug. Austin-based Charlie Martin and Will Taylor have been enveloping listeners in their soft, cozy, slow rock since 2014, when they released their debut EP on Bandcamp. Now, after five years, two split releases, and two albums they’re announcing their third album.  It arrives after Hovvdy’s tour with Lomelda, with whom the band recently released a split EP of covers.

Hovvdy have always had an uncanny ability to create a comforting effect with their songs, even when those songs are about fear, anxiety and their own personal shortcomings. Fans of their zoned-out, slowed-down indie-pop have come to rely on the duo for their consistently soothing music, and it’s a mantle they’ve gladly taken up. “I was really trying to make something that would make people feel better,” Martin says of Heavy Lifter, on the phone from his bandmate Taylor’s house in Austin. “And I think they have served that purpose for me too, just from making them.”

While Heavy Lifter does come off as familiar, the record also expands their sound. Working in close collaboration with engineer and producer Ben Littlejohn in various makeshift studios around Texas, they’ve refined their languid melodies and expanded on their previously muted production. It’s still cozy, but it also veers toward the cinematic, with brief forays into Auto-Tune, distorted drum machines,

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Heavy Lifter was one of my favourite albums of 2019. This is one of those lovely near-perfect records where I’m truly taken with every song—each is a vignette for a feeling I’ve had before or wish I had. The lyrics are so heartfelt and direct and the melodies they are set to and surrounded in are lush yet organic. A gorgeous must buy.

releases October 18th, 2019

all songs written by Hovvdy
produced by Ben Littlejohn and Hovvdy

Hovvdy’s music is the sonic equivalent of a hug. Austin-based Charlie Martin and Will Taylor have been enveloping listeners in their soft, cozy, slow rock since 2014, when they released their debut EP on Bandcamp. Now, after five years, two split releases, and two albums (2016’s Taster and 2018’s Cranberry), they’re announcing their third album. Heavy Lifter will be released on October 18th via Double Double Whammy s.

Hovvdy have always had an uncanny ability to create a comforting effect with their songs, even when those songs are about fear, anxiety and their own personal shortcomings. Fans of their zoned-out, slowed-down indie-pop have come to rely on the duo for their consistently soothing music, and it’s a mantle they’ve gladly taken up. “I was really trying to make something that would make people feel better,” Martin says of Heavy Lifter, on the phone from his bandmate Taylor’s house in Austin. “And I think they have served that purpose for me too, just from making them.”

While Heavy Lifter does come off as familiar, the record also expands their sound. Working in close collaboration with engineer and producer Ben Littlejohn in various makeshift studios around Texas, they’ve refined their languid melodies and expanded on their previously muted production.

It arrives after Hovvdy’s tour with Lomelda, with whom the band recently released a split EP of covers.

Hovvdy’s third full length album, “Heavy Lifter”, is out October 18th, 2019. Charlie Martin and Will Taylor met at a baseball game while on tour drumming for different bands. Back home in Austin, the two Texas natives discovered both held batches of compatible songs, intended for solo projects. They merged as Hovvdy instead.

Penned separately, the duo’s first-ever songwriting efforts coalesce seamlessly on debut LP Taster . To this day, Charlie and Will create like satellites on the same orbit, combining bedroom recordings into a singular worn-in sound. Their downtempo rock found an audience in the Austin and New Orleans scenes, elevated by support from small indie Sports Day Records.

Brooklyn label Double Double Whammy re-released “Taster” in 2017, followed by “Cranberry” in 2018. The sophomore work solidified the group’s sturdy guitar strums and rhythmic instincts, enveloped in nostalgic glow. Third LP “Heavy Lifter” finds new dimensions in the Hovvdy soundscape.

For Heavy Lifter , the duo worked with producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Littlejohn. Throughout Autumn 2018, the team built out the album in makeshift home studios around Texas. Both singers’ voices cut through more decisively than ever, carried by vivid storytelling and production eccentricities.

Familiar fuzz maintains the warmth of past work, but Heavy Lifter is never muffled. Clear-cut characters and scenes emerge in the 13 tracks. Antsy love song “1999” wanders around a small town, while bright pop piece “Mr. Lee” retells a lonely day in reverent detail. Lo-fi Daniel Johnston moment “Tell me I’m a singer” empathetically enters an artistic perspective, unwound lyrically as: “Tell me I’m a singer.”

You can get an early taste via first single and video, “Cathedral,” that blankets you, warm and comforting, in a drowsy sort of way.

Memories inform present decision-making throughout the album. Two tracks dive into family legacies, “Pixie” admitting “outside my mind/ is where i’m gonna be/ not what i had hoped at 14.” “Sudbury” recounts childhood major league dreams: “front yard catch, you got a plan/ to be a baseball star/ texas ranger shortstop.”

Breaking from the confines of guitar-based slowcore, pop and hip-hop influences expand Hovvdy’s established framework. Propulsive, straightforward hooks usher in autotuned tweaks, chugging beats and genre exploration. By pulling apart slightly, Charlie and Will step into new spaces on Heavy Lifter . Always in sync, it’s a balanced effort.