Role Model: Chuck Timely & The Hourglass (CD) [INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

This is the CD of Role Model's third album, the follow-up to his breakout hit "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out." He made it under a strict no-synths, no-programmed-drums rule, and Dakota Johnson turns up on the bridge of "Love I You."

This edition

• CD edition
• Interscope pressing of the full album

About the album

Most pop stars introduce a new album with a teaser video. Role Model mailed out acquaintance cards signed by somebody called Chuck Timely, then gave him his own Instagram account, which is either a very clever rollout or the start of a very charming identity crisis. Tucker Pillsbury, the Maine-born songwriter who studied film in Pittsburgh before music took over, was coming off the biggest moment of his career: "Sally," a bonus single tacked onto the deluxe Kansas Anymore, went viral on the back of live shows where Charli xcx, Natalie Portman and Bowen Yang joined him onstage.

Chuck Timely & The Hourglass, out on Interscope in August 2026, leans further into that warm, country-tinged swing. Producers Mason Stoops and Taylor Mackall built it around live piano and guitar until it feels like a dive-bar jukebox at closing time. Lead single "High Hopes 3000" borrows a little Georgia Satellites swagger, "Service Receipt" and "Stain" do the wry single-life storytelling he's best at, and the whole thing turns on nostalgia and the clock ticking down. NME called it a super-smooth depiction of singledom, and that's the mood exactly. A great one for the car, the kitchen or the long walk home.

"His most likeable album yet."
NME

On Interscope, first out in 2026.