Brooklyn-based shoegaze band smush pair hazy, melodic guitars with noise-rock weight and increasingly adventurous electronic production. Their second album, i’ll always wish,,, arrives January 22, 2027 and pushes the band toward jungle breakbeats, drum-and-bass programming and glitch without losing their dreamlike core.
Brooklyn-via-Vancouver shoegaze band smush have announced their second album, i’ll always wish,,, due January 22, 2027. Emily Borrowman, Atley King, Rudi Neubrander and Wilson Woods recorded the album in Austin with Jackson Baker of witches exist.
Lead single “milkweed butterfly” pushes the band’s hazy guitar sound into more restless territory, layering jungle breakbeats and drum-and-bass-inspired programming with glitchy vocals, noise-rock abrasion and shoegaze texture. Atley King says the song grew from Borrowman’s experience of childhood anxiety and depression during the instability of immigrating to the United States.
The nine-song album follows smush’s 2024 debut if you were here i’d be home by now and 2026 covers EP standards, expanding the band’s palette while Borrowman writes about girlhood, grief and lost innocence. Watch “milkweed butterfly” below.
Brooklyn-based smush have shared “john dearly,” the latest single from their second album, i’ll always wish,,, due January 22, 2027. Following “milkweed butterfly,” the new track pairs shimmering shoegaze textures with a memorable chorus, building from a floating synth hook into a dense wall of sound.
“'john dearly' is about the experience of being in your early adulthood and still feeling like a child,” explains bassist and vocalist Emily Borrowman. “It touches on making the same mistakes over and over again, and feeling stagnant.”
Written with the closing scene of a coming-of-age movie in mind, the song channels that uncertainty into something hopeful, giving its hazy atmosphere a clear melodic center. The album was recorded in Austin with Jackson Baker of witches exist, expanding the band’s guitar-driven foundation with electronic textures and more detailed production.
