By: Jackie Lo

It’s been a while since a song stopped me in my tracks, and “I Want You” by Beck Zegans did just that. I stopped scrolling through songs immediately and thought:

1. I need to know who Beck Zegans is.
2. I need to know what the rest of this album sounds like.

Engraving of Armor released Friday on Exploding in Sound Records, and I’ve been loving this nine-song album, which was co-produced with bandmates Alex MacKay and Julian Fader. It also features El Kempner of Palehound (a favorite of mine) on two tracks.

“When You Were In My Bed” is the first track, and it opens so quietly and hauntingly, almost like a chant, before building and crescendoing with drums and guitars, only to strip back down to its quiet beginning for the last chorus. It leaves you wanting more, and it sets the tone for where the rest of the album will take you: letting you be vulnerable and explore while shedding the armor we wear to hide pain.

“Love In The End Times” was a standout track for me. Her vocal delivery and harmonies gave me the same feeling I had when I first listened to Aimee Mann and the Magnolia Soundtrack. There’s a despair — a desperateness — that feels so lost while still holding onto this lifeline of hope: “the motion of the air / it changed / that day / we met…like a wind,” which breaks your damn heart. But it’s the chorus — “take me when you’re going / there’s nothing really worth knowing / except this feeling” — that makes you open to falling in love again and finding beauty in the world.

“I Want You” is what brought me to this album, and it’s still my favorite track. With those warm, raspy female vocals reminiscent of Blouse paired with perfect fuzz guitars, it has that familiar, knowing quality. It pierces right to my indie-rock heart — the part of me that’s a sucker for the perfect combination of beautiful vocals and heavy guitars.

“Woods,” with the opening line “she sees her way out of the fog,” builds to “we’re on the outside” with layered, wonderful guitar riffs that make you feel the weight lift right off of you. The dissonant guitars at the end feel like the noise we have to deal with in our heads, and I found it incredibly pertinent to what it feels like living in this world right now.

Feeling a little raw this week, I felt like this album was sent to me exactly when I needed it. It was the perfect soundtrack, making me feel introspective yet somehow even more connected to the universe. It allowed me to wallow, just the tiniest bit, in my fear while still leaving me hopeful about the unknown. I think that’s the best we can hope for.