Review: LANY — Soft

LANY
Soft
Sunset Garden
Street: 10.10.2025
LANY = The 1975 x The Band CAMINO

Since 2018, I’ve been wondering if anything new that Nashville pop group LANY puts out will ever compare to their earlier work, particularly their debut album and Malibu Nights. There’s something distinct about that early sound — a certain level of effortless that is natural, which makes for spectacular indie pop music that still hits. I hear a song from Malibu Nights and I’m instantly transported. I’m yearning. I’m ready to sing the lyrics at the top of my lungs. The band even acknowledges this in an ironic way on the first track of their last album A Beautiful Blur, “XXL”: “All my favorite songs are from 2018.”

So, having the now two-piece group (keyboardist Les Priest left) release what might be the most romantic album of 2025 wasn’t exactly on my music bingo card. But their sixth studio album, a short and sweet 10-track package, does exactly that.

If the album cover, a zoomed-in shot on a small lamb in presumably frontman Paul Klein’s arms, is any indication: This album is precious. Like the title track and opener say, it is soft. It’s delicate. It’s a little hard to listen to if you aren’t in the throes of romance.

The feather-light intro and production ushers listeners into a saccharine sweet and — dare this cynic say — at times mushy album. It’s a song about the disbelief that someone can love another so dearly, an anthem that captures the privilege of doing so.

From there, the album only gets sweeter. The middle of it, with songs like, “Know You Naked,” “Stuck” and “Sound of Rain,” all blend into each other seamlessly, featuring a groovy undercurrent to the production tying them together in the same why the lyrical themes do. It’s like caramel being drizzled into a frappucino, thick and sweet and delicious, if not a little hard to get lost in.

It’s not all romance, though. “Act My Age” is a gem hidden later on in the tracklist — a song for all ages, a desperate plea at understanding and empathy for one’s self, an ode to figuring it all out and how messy that can be. “Make Me Forget” is a cynical little devil, a song that might seem out of place on the album, but only if you listen to the lyrics too closely. It’s a surprising track in terms of production, too, with a more harsher edge and robust sound.

“Destiny” is a beautiful follow-up with lost, wandering introduction lyrics and a sigh-of-relief chorus. It’s the best track on the album: a masterclass in songwriting and production that uplifts it.

LANY’s last two albums have suffered from only having a handful of memorable, stand-out songs, while the rest melt into the ever-evolving ether of indie pop music. But on Soft, they slowly claw their way back to the center of where they originally started, writing simple tracks that connect with listeners far and wide. —Palak Jayswal

Read more national album reviews in SLUG:
Review: The Last Dinner Party — From The Pyre
Review: Melody’s Echo Chamber — Unclouded