The Most Honest And Authentic Rock Record You’ll Hear All Year

Song of the Day: “Give” by The Bobby Lees

Jun 22, 2026

The Bobby Lees often find themselves in the conversation with bands that share their penchant for high-octane garage-punk, raw swagger, and a disregard for strict genre boundaries. If you were worried that they might have lost their sharp edges after their brief hiatus, New Self is here to prove that they haven’t just kept their teeth—they’ve sharpened them.

Since their 2018 debut Beauty Pageant, the band has been sprinting through the garage-rock scene with a frantic energy that usually makes other bands look like they’re moving through molasses. While Skin Suit and Bellevue established them as a force of nature, New Self finds the band in a more efficient, lethal form. They’ve trimmed the fat, tightened the screws, and emerged as a trio with an album that feels like a targeted strike.

New Self is a fascinating study in what happens when you stop trying to be “the next” anything and simply become the best version of your own chaos. Where earlier records were defined by a certain ramshackle charm, this one feels intentional. The band has clearly spent their time off thinking about the impact of their sound rather than just the volume of it. They still play with the frantic spirit that endeared them to fans in the first place, but there’s a new sense of control at the wheel. They’ve successfully traded in their “barely holding it together” aesthetic for something much more dangerous: a band that knows exactly how to break things and, more importantly, how to put them back together again better than they were in the first place.

It’s hard to choose a standout track on an album with a 20 minute run-time, but for me the clear standout of the collection is the opener, “Give.” It’s a track that doesn’t bother with an introduction; it simply kicks the door down and expects you to be ready. It assembles itself before your ears—hyperactive bass-drum notes laying the foundation, bass stepping up to the front and locking in, guitars searing the edges—as if the band is showing off how easily they can construct a wall of sound. It’s not just a song; it’s an exercise in pacing that sets the bar so high the rest of the album has to scramble to keep up. Sam Quartin’s vocals here are less of a performance and more of a dare, delivered with a casual confidence that suggests she could do this all day while barely breaking a sweat.