OG Quick Take: This is Lorelei - Holo Boy
Call Me Scrooge, but Nate Amos Can Get Off My Lawn
When we started 3A6OG just over three years ago, the goal was to stay positive and show how a group of Old Guys could stay engaged with new music, keep up with shows, and otherwise stave off the inevitable characteristics of middle age (at least where music is concerned). Rather than sound like stereotypical Gen X music fans yearning for the glory days of our slacker youth, we wanted to embrace the new and, even if we might get occasionally cranky, mostly focus on things we liked.
And, by and large, I think we’ve achieved that. But after digesting a bunch of 2025 year end lists and now the initial tracks from the new record out today from This Is Lorelei, I just need to come out and embrace the Old in Old Guys and scream…
Get Off My Lawn. (Don’t worry, unlike most Americans, I don’t have a gun, but, well, pretty please…)
This Is Lorelei is the project of Nate Amos, who is also known for his work in the band Water From Your Eyes, which is basically a duo of Nate making the music and Rachel Brown singing. They released an album called It’s A Beautiful Place this past summer, and it’s doing quite well on many Best of 2025 Lists (AOTY says it’s at #24 on their aggregate list). Suffice to say, the Water From Your Eyes album was not for me — dance-heavy indie pop with layers of instrumentation, from synths to heavy guitars and everything in between, and mostly forgettable lyrics and that put-upon style of vocals that very few people can pull off well.
In my old age, though, I also can recognize when something is just not my genre at all, and I actually have come to appreciate that; let the people enjoy this music that I can’t connect to at all. Perhaps I’ll mature my way into it someday.
But then there is This Is Lorelei, which is making music that I am fully supposed to like. Nate has put out a whole bunch of releases over close to 15 years under this name, but 2024’s Box for Buddy, Box for Star broke through as an indie rock/power pop/alt-country hybrid. Given that the sound should be up my alley, I tried multiple times with this record, and although I could sense there were elements of good songs there, it didn’t connect. For a project that was supposed to be exercising a new and contrasting side of the songwriter, there wasn’t enough of a core difference from Water From Your Eyes in the delivery to make me care. Yet both MJ Lenderman and Snail Mail showed that these were indeed solid songs, as they both did their own versions of songs from the 2024 album that far outpaced the originals.
So on the heels of what MJ and Snail Mail pulled off from Nate’s songs, I had hopes for the new one. Sadly, though, rather than welcome an unexpected holiday-time treat, I’m going full Scrooge.
First, releasing an album on December 12 feels oddly calculated at this stage in the history of album release communications and industry dynamics. I mean, you do this knowing Best Of lists are out, and like Cameron Winter from Geese did last year when he released Heavy Metal on December 6, putting out a record this late just smacks of seeking attention that might not otherwise be there: “Is it a 2025 record? Or a 2026 record? Does this change the 2025 rankings? How do I consider this and Water From Your Eyes?” Blah blah blah. (Not for nothing, on two different occasions after I let “Holo Boy” finish, the Apple Music algorithm called up a song from Cameron Winter’s record as the next track).
Similarly on the calculated front, this is an album of older songs re-recorded with slightly new takes. Hard to argue with that concept too much, as it’s a longstanding musical tradition and 3A6OG favorites Wednesday did the same with two songs on their new record (although they are probably the two worst songs on a record I otherwise love and are far inferior to the originals), but a full record of re-recorded oldies from a side project also strikes as a calculated search for new attention (since I’m imagining he’s not dealing with Taylor Swift rights issues, which apparently they now write law journal articles about), especially when they sound more or less the same, just with cleaner production and a few more tricks since he can likely now afford them.
Second, and more to the point of this site, I really dislike both of the songs (re)released as of this writing. “Name the Band” is a redo of a 2021 track, and it’s a 90-second indie pop track where the singer is giving permission to a young “star” to name their band and take their life wherever they feel called (“you can name the band whatever you want/they actually don’t care/star/you know they didn’t mean to hurt you there/star/they hurt so bad seeing you this sad”). The new track has some different effects on the guitar, and Nate’s voice is a bit more direct, and he takes the tone in some new directions. But the core melody and structure is the same, and it strikes me as a poor man’s Lemonheads track, perhaps with a little Dismemberment Plan emo thrown in. It feels like a song that’s trying to be catchy and earnest but just feels, well, meh.
Title track “Holo Boy” is a cross between a Weezer and pick-another-mid-90s “alternative” anthem-writing band (I’ll say Marcy Playground but probably 10 other choices would get full credit). It’s a fully average mid-tempo rock song that appears to be about a guy pining for a lost lover (“Baby, don’t you cry no more/Baby, don’t you turn around/‘Cause this whole town is burning down/Wasted when you’re not around”) without much else to show for it. It’s fine for one listen, I suppose, but instantly forgettable.
I know it’s the holidays, and it’s been a tough year for just about everyone. So I oughta be nicer and more forgiving and see how I can spread some cheer through music appreciation. But with these two Nate Amos projects and those like them occupying more and more of the indie rock landscape, I guess I just feel the need to follow the political winds for a minute and get angry.
I also can acknowledge when I have a problem, so someone will just have to tell me how the rest of the record sounds; rather than listen to any more of the album and get even angrier, I’ll just add this to the “Yes, I’m Old and Want This Off My Lawn” pile, alongside Geese, Oklou, Nourished by Time, Turnstile, Wet Leg, and, yes, Water From Your Eyes. (Brad)