“My grandma calls stubborn people bullheaded and it always stuck with me: I really relate to that term.” That’s what LA’s Austin Feinstein says of his latest album under his moniker Slow Hollows, called appropriately Bullhead. With a recent amicable break up of his band, it took a certain amount of stick-to-it-iveness to keep his trajectory going, since his start as a teenager in 2013. It is nothing like his last record, Actors, a dance and disco influenced record that was a bit of a reinvention for the band. “Making a sonic shift towards the sound of early Slow Hollows records felt like something I needed to do for myself.”

The result is a record that is hushed and orchestral at the same time, something that has the understatedness of indie pioneers, Sebadoh, and reminds me as well of the melodic economy of Gary Lightbody’s Snow Patrol. “It’s time to go, a world is waiting,” he sings on the last track of the album, a particularly Elliot Smith sounding track. There is the play, on the record, between habit and routine and breaking out of it to live a meaningful life, even if you’ve got to be a bit stubborn or “bullheaded” to do that.

And yet, his perspective is honest in the things that concern him and hold him back. “I can’t afford a tragedy / One day at a time’s enough,” he sings on “Villain” with its moody and evocative string arrangement. That was my favorite part of the record: he’s an artist who is able to put into words some of my own hang ups and hopes, in compelling economical indie rock.

Speaking of bullheaded, a sign of Feinstein’s commitment to his vision as an artist, he and producer friend Nick Noneman actually made a couple of different versions of the record, before landing on this final iteration. And although they have moved onto other projects, the album features everyone from his old band in one form or another on the record. “Bullhead, you can’t keep waiting for the end.” It is a record that allows for grief and fear, but which encourages his listeners to live the lives that they want to live. A subtle, but triumphant record.

Order Bullhead by Slow Hollows HERE