Reflecting candidly on aging, forgiveness, and self-improvement, the indie-pop duo returns with a charming new album that takes the world in stride.
Charlie Martin and Will Taylor know that it’s never too late to start over. As the core members of Hovvdy—the slowcore duo they founded in 2014 that’s since evolved into a powerhouse of laid-back indie pop—the Texas natives have explored the intricacies of reaching major life milestones, feeling like a deadbeat, and those odd moments when the two intersect. That mentality led to 2024’s self-titled double album, a record Martin describes as “generous,” not only in its epic duration but also in the tender feelings it revealed. For their sixth album, Big World, Hovvdy dial it back with shorter runtimes and more ambiguous lyrics. It’s not to say they’re taking themselves less seriously, but Big World assumes a more relaxed approach that suggests they’re not so concerned with living up to expectations. They find relief, rather than anxiety, in the fact that anything could happen.
For the first time in their career, Martin and Taylor made Hovvdy while living in different states. Since then, they’ve reunited in Nashville, where they’ve respectively settled with young families and found work as professional songwriters. Their lyrics speak to how the career pivot has altered their outlook: “Graduated from a punk to a hack/Can’t speak on that,” Taylor sings on the front-porch chiller “Way Down.” Instead of divulging unflattering specifics, Big World leans on casual, off-the-cuff narration, a result of Hovvdy bringing instrumental compositions to the studio and coming up with the lyrics on the spot.
With warm production from Bennett Littlejohn, who’s worked on each Hovvdy album in some capacity, Taylor and Martin’s songwriting is strong enough that they can be succinct without compromising their point of view. “JJ,” the latest addition to Hovvdy’s rolodex of songs named for people, is Martin’s ode to a long-distance loved one. “Man, I wanna call you up” might be Big World’s most romantic gesture, but he resists indulging too much: “Honest, I almost cry,” he sings just before a sunny, banjo-soaked coda distracts him. He ruminates on his old friends’ life trajectories over the chugging, textured percussion of “You Will Go Far,” turning could-be throwaway lines like “He’s a new boy, man/I’m a new boy, man” into bittersweet observations of the people you were once young with growing older, just as you are.
Many of the lyrics on Big World explore themes of self-improvement: how to become a better partner, father, son, and friend. As they tell it, that starts with acknowledging your own shortcomings without indulging in self-pity: “From the way it looks/I’m about to lose you,” Taylor lilts on “What I Had,” a harmonica-embellished, R&B-tinged ballad about taking somebody for granted. By the time we reach the playful single “Try Try Try,” he doesn’t fear consequence: “If you wanna sock it to me/I can take a punch,” he pseudo-raps, like he’s hyping himself up for whatever revelations the invitation creates.
Big World employs a lot of the stylistic choices perfected on Hovvdy: Acoustic guitars reverberate big and bold, while mellotron and Wurlitzer flourishes contrast programmed drums that nod to the band’s love of hip-hop. Having settled into a groove on that album, maybe Hovvdy feel less pressure to expand on its blueprint: They understand that most decisions aren’t as high-stakes as they might have have seemed when they were younger, and disappointing the people you care about is an inevitability, not a character flaw, and vice versa. On mid-album highlight “Blast,” Martin recalls a rocky period in his relationship, but he delights in taking it in stride: “We could do better next time/We could do better every time,” he sings over a chipper beat. “Every time” feels like the operative phrase there, as Big World suggests that life itself is a series of opportunities to forgive yourself and others. A beer with your best buds along the way can’t hurt.
