Live Forever by Bartees Strange

Live Forever, Bartees Strange's debut album, landed on October 2, 2020, via Memory Music, and it introduced a songwriter who refuses to stay in one lane. Born in Ipswich, England, raised in Mustang, Oklahoma, and seasoned in the Brooklyn post-hardcore band Stay Inside, he'd warmed up earlier that year with Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, a set of reimagined National covers, and landed on Stereogum's list of artists to watch.

He cut the album in a barn studio in Wassaic, New York, and Will Yip mastered it. The singles show the range: "Mustang", which shares its name with the Oklahoma town where he grew up, swells with synths and big vocals; "Boomer" is a wiry indie rock sprint on jangling guitars, its video showing Strange playing every instrument himself at home; "Kelly Rowland" came next. It's a record that flips between moods like channels and makes each one feel lived in.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.