Album Of The Week: ear Rumspringa

3:30 PM EDT on May 26, 2026

There’s a thin line between nostalgia and creation. One of the most fascinating aspects of the 2000s revival has been hearing old reference points collide in new ways. Though the loosely defined “indie sleaze” craze amounted to little more than cosplay for some artists, most famously the Dare jacking James Murphy’s swag, a giddy swirl of influences at play in Bassvictim’s music creates the sense of one foot planted in the past, one in the future. So it goes with ear.

The basics: ear are a two-piece electronic twee band (or “indietronica” if you must) comprising Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan, formed at Bard College two years ago and now split between London and Upstate New York. Their band name is partly inspired by a His Name Is Alive song. After building buzz with their 2024 debut single “Nerves” and their 2025 debut album The Most Dear And The Future — a surehanded statement of ethos and aesthetic in just 16 minutes of audio — they became one of the first acts signed to A24 Music, the record label run by the prestige film production company and distributor A24. This Friday they’ll release their second album, Rumspringa , and they’re being so secretive that we’re not allowed to share the album cover until the music’s out.

Like Bassvictim, ear’s music instantly evokes the 2000s, but they fit the pieces together in distinctive ways, forming exciting new shapes. There’s a lot of indiepop in the mix — Paz also released a twee solo album called Exit last year — but also glitchy IDM, atmospheric post-rock, found sound, slowcore, bursts of blaring sawtooth synths. Imagine the Postal Service’s indie synth-pop as reinterpreted by the earnest Icelandic minimalists múm, or the hushed vocal duets of the xx soundtracked by sonic collagists the Books. Yet for all its Y2K-era touchpoints, ear’s music also makes sense in conversation with current artists like avant-rock abstractionists caroline or “emo ambient” cult hero claire rousay. It’s not for nothing that “Nerves” got a boost from inclusion on Spotify’s CPH+ playlist, which centers on Copenhagen’s booming alt-pop scene.

In other words, ear are kindred spirits with anyone who is channeling deep yearning into whispery, electro-organic outpourings. Rumspringa is full of intimate expressions often whittled down to a few open-ended phrases, then obscured by their drowsily mumbled delivery. You feel like you’re hearing Paz and Avtan’s deepest longings, maybe even burblings from their subconscious. But in practice it’s more about sentiments than specifics, which pairs well with music that feels like stepping into someone else’s dreams.

Named for the Amish practice of letting teenagers live outside the community’s strict standards as a way of sorting out their life trajectory, Rumspringa is billed as a “choose life” album, but ear are being coy about what the phrase entails. Promo materials elaborate that this music is about how pursuing personal independence can be destructive or beautiful. Although the lyrics leave a lot unsaid, they are a crucial animating force for the music itself, as Paz explained evocatively in a No Bells interview last year : “We spend most of the time on sound selection, because once you know the thesis of the song it’s basically just collecting evidence.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the source material can often be inscrutable too. “That’s our favorite thing is sounds that are secrets, even from each other,” Avtan told No Bells. “There was certain stuff that I sent Jonah where it’s like, ‘You can’t know where this is from, just listen to it as a sound.’” Paz added, “So much of the sauce for us is intentionally not telling each other what we’re doing on the track, and then we end up with a fun lexicon of stuff that we work from because there’s a lot of stuff that we haven’t said out loud.” Paz and Avtan are sensitive introverts and self-described gatekeeping enthusiasts , so it’s almost too perfect that they’re holding some things back even from each other. Yet if the pair retain some mystery in their working relationship, they’re also closely attuned to each other. “The way we make music is basically looking over to the other to see what facial expression they’re making,” Avtan told The Face .

On Rumspringa , that emotional dance leads us somewhere between a place and a state of mind. Squealing synth melodies descend upon the clicking, murmuring lead single “Ne Plus Ultra,” piling up like a freak blizzard. “Threads” makes beautiful use of a twinkly music-box keyboard melody, sampled dialogue, and whirring synth oscillations. The lo-fi bedroom-pop guitar strums of “Nothing’s Open” give way to “F,” a track that reminds me of Burial’s brisk adventures through the London nightlife. For 30 minutes, ear wield familiar tones and textures with the confidence and creative excitement that comes with youth. They might not let you all the way in, but you share in their sense of epiphany as they reshuffle nostalgia into the soundtrack for a new generation’s memories.

Rumspringa is out 5/29 on A24 Music.

Other albums of note out this week: Boards Of Canada's Inferno Paul McCartney's The Boys Of Dungeon Lane Kurt Vile's Philadelphia's Been Good To Me Feeble Little Horse's bitknot Iceage's For Love Of Grace & The Hereafter Rare DM's Attention Elder's Through Zero Villagerrr's Carousel Balmora's These Graven Halls Kim Petras' Detour Greg Mendez's Beauty Land Turnover's Down On Earth The Bug Club's Every Single Muscle Callahan & Witsher's Sorry to Hear That Guided By Voices' Crawlspace Of The Pantheon Francis Of Delirium's Run, Run Pure Beauty Latto's Big Mama Cole Berliner's The Black Door Joshua Ray Walker's Ain’t Dead Yet Violet Grohl's Be Sweet To Me Sparta's Cut A Silhouette Dogstar's All In Now aespa's LEMONADE Saint Agnes' Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin Ghinzu's W.O.W.A. Veps' ChurchyardStreet 8B 38 Spesh's 8 Shots RaiNao's Marcria Mark Trecka's Romance Wake Naming Scottie Miller's Hello Pain Mad Iris' Mad Iris Don Williams' EPILOGUE: THE CELLAR TAPES Shinedown's EI8HT The Greenberry Woods' It's All Good, Sugar Young Miko's Do Not Disturb (Deluxe) Static Dress' Injury Episode YG Kayboe's Blood On The Pen 3 Mixtape Widemouth's No Gasoline HECATE ENTHRONED’s The Corpse Of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried Yottie's CASINO Mixtape Rosie Carney's doomsday (night tapes) Gigi Masin's Movement District Five’s GLUT GODTHRYMM's Projections TRUEANDTRUE's NOSEDIVE KÁRYYN's PHYSICS UNIVERSAL LOVE LANGUAGE (PULL) Oakwood's Blurred Away Monolord's Neverending Phoenix James' Teeth Tenroc's God Is A Person JP Soars & Anne Harris’ Gypsy Blue Revue The Hands Free's Upturned Cup The Maureens' Don't Give Up Wev's OST Danalogue's Teleportations Lenka's Good Days Doublespeak's Doublespeak Devin Townsend's The Moth Camille Camille's Enchanted Sea Kris Tiner & Cathlene Pineda's Sung All Them Witches' House Of Mirrors Susto's Susto Stringband (Volume 2) Lennie Rayen's Entertain The Space Tory Silver's In Through The Front With Lasers Kikù Hibino & Merzbow's Rococo ∞ Echomatter Tomorrow Tomorrow's Dwelling Renée Fleming & Béla Fleck's The Fiddle And The Drum David Torn's i imagine a place not the same Paper Pools' Everything Russ Irwin's King Of A Thousand Fools Lyra Pramuk's Hymnal (Resung) Keyland's Knuckle Sandwich Vic Bondi's Vic Bondi And His Issues Labrinth's COSIMC OPERA ACT II Funebrarum's Beckoning The Void Of Eternal Silence Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts' As Time Explodes Live Album The Who's Live At Eden Project 2023 The Fall's Singles Live Vol. Two 1980–83 Ducks Ltd.'s Modern Fiction (5 Year Anniversary Edition) Various Artists' Power Ballad (Music From The Motion Picture) Various Artists' K-POPS! (Music From And Inspired By K-POPS! Motion Picture) Various Artists' Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow The Monkees' Good Times! (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) Voka Gentle's Domestic Bliss: Remixes KulfiGirls' Divinity (Deluxe Edition) Hunx And His Punx's The Punkettes EP Eli & Fur's Dreams At Dusk Pt. II EP Opal Mag's Goodbye Lavender EP DOSS' DOSS EP Crimes Of Passion's Coasting EP thistle.'s backflip EP Heavee's Mainframe EP John Gallagher Jr.'s Almost OK EP Saint Harison's ghosted EP Siyahkal's Corrupt EP Ablation's Lethal Abuse EP KIMIKO's Modern Dance EP Maiah Manser's Fifth Dimension Part 1 EP Wesko's Familiar Spirits EP Kuleeangee's Love & Affection EP Heidi Curtis' Hollow Heart EP Rules' As Soon As I Get Home EP Ayase's dialogue EP Die Twice's Accept Me Like A Lie EP Sierra Spirit's Rodeo Clown EP corook's How do I relate to you? EP

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_Originally reported by [Stereogum](https://stereogum.com/2500138/album-of-the-week-ear-rumspringa/reviews/album-of-the-week/)._