WYYRRD, SMALL POND, BUG CRUSH, MOPE

Small Pond didn't set out to make a concept record - they set out to survive the space between two recording sessions, four hundred miles from home, in a car named Vicki Jean Volvo. What came out the other side is Soft Burn, the New England indie rock band's sophomore album and the sound of four people who've stopped trying to agree on what kind of band they are.

Formed on the New Hampshire seacoast and now rooted in Portland, Maine, Small Pond built their name the way most great regional bands do: three EPs, a live record, relentless local shows, and a songwriting voice courtesy of singer Molly McDevitt - sharp enough to turn discomfort into something you want to sing along to. Their 2022 debut, Let It Fall Like It Should, established the blueprint: folk-honest lyrics braced against modern indie rock's heavier edges. Soft Burn, out October 21, is where that blueprint gets torn up.