Photo Credit: Gabrielle Ravet

Fix your hearts or die. That’s the choice Brooklyn emogaze torchbearers better living. lay out on their sophomore album ‘Fix Your Heart’, announced today and due everywhere August 7 via We’re Trying Records. The band shared the new single “nighttime dan spins discs for money” alongside the news. Listen here.

Led by songwriter Gavin Siebrass of Ogbert The Nerd, the four-piece has built a following across the Northeast on the strength of impassioned, unforgettable live sets. Their sound stitches together hook-filled ’90s indie rock, true-blue emo songcraft, and pummelling guitar theatrics, drawing comparisons to Archers of Loaf, Beaster-era Sugar, and the heavy guitars of pre-goth Smashing Pumpkins and Hum. The band recently signed with the acclaimed Austin label We’re Trying Records, home to scene powerhouses including oh my god elephant, Swiss Army Wife, Short Fictions, and 95COROLLA.

Emerging from the sweaty basements and dive bars of the Brooklyn DIY scene, better living. might just be the quintessential New York rock band. Like the city itself, their music runs compact, close-quarters, and fast-moving. After a string of EPs, splits, and one-off singles, members Siebrass (guitar, vocals), Sam Gaylert (guitar), Jorge B-R (bass), and Greg Klepczyk (drums) gathered in the studio to channel everything they’d learned from countless tours into one sticky, shouty record.

Where their earlier output ranged across emo, shoegaze, post-hardcore, and screamo, ‘Fix Your Heart’ binds those threads into a singular exploration of gender identity, the salvation of community, and the danger of friendships gone awry. Across body-slamming riffs, spoken-word passages, and a couple of immaculate choruses, the band finds plenty of catharsis, airing out the bad feelings until they feel good again.

The result is 10 furious, fuzzed-out songs of “Capital R” Rock Music, with clear admiration for ’90s guitar gods like Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, and Hum. They sidestep nostalgia worship by folding in the more modern sensibilities of acts like Queens of the Stone Age, Ovlov, and La Dispute, all driven by a do-it-yourself ambition that keeps them grounded. These are songs built to be experienced live and loud. The album follows the band’s first single “the light,” and arrives on CD and cassette.

Track Listing:
the opener
the light
sling
atracotoxin
king in yellow
lowercase with a period.
nighttime dan spins discs for money
panopticon
again
the closer