“I tried everything just to see if I could love,” Jade Lilitri of oso oso sings on his latest album, life till bones, filled with ten brief but brave songs. This is my first introduction to the emo-tinged indie rockers, and the band’s songs gripped me with their vulnerability and hookiness for the duration. “I love you, but life is a gun,” the album starts on “many ways.” It’s a theme that comes up a number of times, something you might not expect from an artist who roams around the recording studio stoned.

But oso oso’s music is as deep as it is hooky. “I’m bleeding out, you are a shark / I’m just a dog without its bark.” Jade’s honesty and transparency is the flower which attracts the bees with its color and smell. “I’ve got a lot to apologize for / oh Caroline, she can’t rely on me.” Many of the songs are love songs, or variations on the love theme. Like the touching “Seesaw,” an acoustic moment of reflection on the album, which was written for his cousin and former guitarist, Tavish Maloney, who passed away in 2021. It is a song that addresses the balance his old friend added to his life, like the playground apparatus.

“I can’t be happy every day / I won’t always know what to say / And in times I do, what do we commit to?” He has a knack for the piercing question, which makes his songs not only catchy but supremely relatable. His voice is the sweet centerpiece, but the band’s unique guitars are just as satisfying. The album covers a lot of ground in a short time, and begs for a replay at the end—and you should have the time to indulge.

This was a real treat of a record and makes me want to check out Oso Oso’s back catalog. “I like your songs when the words all get stuck in my head / I like your socks when they’re on the floor next to my bed.” There are a lot of lines on the album that will stick in your head long after the album is done. And the hooky vocals and guitars, that make your heart feel that certain thing, is something you’re certain to remember as well. A killer album from a band whose name I’d heard for many years, but finally got to sample. It was a satisfying charcuterie of rock.

order Life till bones HERE