Laney Jones and the Spirits have released their self-titled debut album, and it sounds like a band that has been waiting a long time to say exactly this. Co-produced by Jones alongside Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Langhorne Slim), the record was born from genuine loss, written in the wake of losing their dog Hap and shaped by the isolation and grief that followed. That emotional weight runs through every track, from the guitar-clamoring grit of “Bitch Year” to the lyrically layered “Knowme,” which captures the specific alienation of pursuing a creative life among people who love you but cannot quite follow where you are going. Jones frames it with characteristic directness: “Anyone who’s pursuing a dream looks crazy from the outside, I guess.”
The band, rounded out by Dowd, Carson Lystad, and Glen Hruska, recorded the album as genuine collaborators for the first time, and that chemistry is audible. “We Belong Together,” inspired in part by Kurt Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan, is the kind of rock song that feels physical from the first note, about belonging in the deepest sense rather than the romantic one. Jones puts the full picture plainly: “Being an indie artist these days without the help of a big team and money is a test of resilience and scrappiness. This record wrestles with that, and I believe this is our best work yet.”