ALBUM REVIEWS
Robert Jon & The Wreck are nothing short of exceptional, moving, and endlessly exciting. Picture a mix of The Faces, The Rolling Stones, and The Band, and you’ll get a sense of their sound. While plenty of groups occupy a similar lane, Robert Jon Burrison and his crew remain the most electrifying and refreshing of them all. I think it comes down to their tight-knit chemistry, their consistently strong songwriting, and a frontman whose voice deserves even more recognition than it already has.
Their new album Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes is a powerhouse from start to finish. It’s bold, dynamic, full of riffs and anthemic moments, and just might be the most fully realized record they’ve put out to date. A big reason for that is producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Rival Sons). “It was an incredible honor to collaborate with Dave Cobb on our new record,” says Robert Jon Burrison. “Not only has he worked with artists we deeply admire, but he’s also been a producer we’ve respected for over a decade. Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes feels like a true reflection of who Robert Jon & The Wreck is as a band. From the moment we arrived in Savannah, GA, to record, we felt an immediate sense of comfort and ease—something rare in a typical studio environment. Being away from our usual routines, living together, and immersing ourselves in the new songs from start to finish created an album we are incredibly proud of. We can’t wait to share it with the world and bring it to life on stage.”
That sense of pride comes through in every track. One of the standouts for me is “Long Gone,” a roaring rocker with a killer riff and solo that stays with you long after it ends.
Then there is ‘Dark Angel’ with one of Robert Jon’s best vocals on the album and some sublime guitar work.
My personal favourite is ‘I Wanna Give It’, a real classic style number, loaded with piano and the feel of coming from Lockdown jam sessions. The band at their best.
Another highlight is “Dark Angel,” where Robert Jon delivers one of his strongest vocal performances on the album, paired with beautifully layered guitar work.
But my personal favorite is “I Wanna Give It.” It has the charm of a timeless classic, built around piano and carrying the free-flowing vibe of a jam born out of lockdown sessions. It’s Robert Jon & The Wreck at their absolute best.
ALBUM REVIEWS
The leather jackets and skinny jeans worn by Noah Dillon and Chandler Ransom Lucy have become something of a signature, and the pair have hovered around the edges of the pop worlds in New York and Los Angeles for quite some time. First highlighted by NME during the Dimes Square resurgence in 2023, The Hellp have gradually stepped away from their earlier indie-sleaze imitation and leaned into something far more thoughtful. Their wild, neon-tinged party vibe has been traded for a more cinematic electronic approach that still holds onto a confident, self-aware attitude.
Dillon and Lucy started releasing music as The Hellp in 2016, with early mixtapes rooted in the chaotic nights and carefree behaviour once associated with NYC’s indie-sleaze staples like LCD Soundsystem and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Over time, though, they’ve earned a steadily growing respect from critics. That rise has come through both their underground gigs, which have included a show at London’s Corsica Studios with Fakemink as support, and through Dillon’s expanding visual work that recently reached Rosalía’s ‘LUX’ album and a pair of music videos for 2hollis.
As ‘Riviera’ approached release, the duo shared: “We knew our next project would need to be a bit more mature… we refuse to become stagnant. ‘Riviera’ is more solemn, restrained and impassioned than anything we’ve done before.” The finished album feels like Dillon and Lucy carefully balancing identity and openness, theatricality and direct emotion.
The lead release, ‘Country Road’, carries a late-night heaviness, the kind of confession you would quietly tell a friend in a club’s smoking area. Its lonely tone is surrounded by glitching electronics and a rising bridge that points to the exhaustion that follows endless nights out. Tracks like ‘New Wave America’ and ‘Cortt’ deepen what the duo mention in their liner notes as a “desperate story of the disparate Americana.” Both pieces broaden the album’s emotional landscape and offer clear-eyed commentary on reluctantly stepping into adulthood.
When ‘Riviera’ shifts into ‘Doppler’, the tone brightens for a moment as hopeful synths lift Dillon’s words about yearning and heartbreak into an emotional peak. And in the final moments of the record, The Hellp land on something instantly familiar to anyone who has drifted away from the club scene. The Kavinsky-like opening of ‘Here I Am’ nods to their early inspirations, while the closing track ‘Live Forever’ arrives with a slow, grounded maturity, built around Dillon repeating the line: “I don’t want to live forever.”
‘Riviera’ holds far less disorder than The Hellp’s earlier releases. This turn inward marks an important risk for a duo once fuelled by the momentum of a downtown New York comeback. By easing off the frenzy, The Hellp have stepped out of the party’s lingering haze and returned with a style that feels more refined and more aware of itself than anything they have created before.
