Boy Harsher: Careful Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This pressing on the band's own Nude Club label comes on 140g vinyl with an insert. Careful drew a Metacritic score of 81, and NME heard "a dark power, an atavistic pull" in its ten tracks.

This edition

140g vinyl
Insert included
Nude Club label edition

About the album

Every band has an origin story; Boy Harsher have a tattoo. In 2017 Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller split up, personally and professionally, and at what was meant to be their final show Matthews had the word "careful" inked on her skin. They patched things up, kept going, and named their second album after it, putting it out on their own Nude Club imprint in February 2019.

Muller's synths and drum machines draw on coldwave, minimal wave and 80s EBM, all cold steel and night driving, while Matthews' half-whispered vocals carry songs shaped by personal loss. "Face the Fire" was the first single, "Fate" and "LA" followed with their own videos, "Keep Driving" sets the scene, and "The Look You Gave (Jerry)" is a tribute to her late stepfather.

Resident Advisor called it "a mix of compact synth pop tunes and filmic interludes," and The 405 said that with this album the duo were "no longer the best-kept secret" of the underground. It's the most danceable album ever named after a word of caution, and frankly we'd like to see the others try.

Also at Kops: more Boy Harsher on vinyl · browse Electronic