Boyscott - Spellbound (2024) [Hi-Res]

When Boyscott’s principal songwriter Scott Hermo Jr. wrote and recorded his debut album Goose Bumps, he wasn’t actually aware that he was writing a record. “It was truly just a fun process of creativity experiments and first-thought-best-thought mentality,” remembers Hermo. The album, originally released in 2015, introduced Boyscott’s unique spin on breezy surf-inspired indie pop, and jumpstarted a tour-heavy career that would persist nearly a decade before new music would be released.

The primordial wisps of Spellbound, the sophomore album from Boyscott, emerged around the same time as Goose Bumps. Since his initial release and foray into regular touring, Hermo spent the intervening nine years writing, demoing, recording, and in most cases re-recording the songs that would come to form Spellbound.

Having sustained themselves off of a single release for so long, Boyscott turned to extensive touring for inspiration and growth. “I had to mature and learn a ton to be able to finish these songs — it helped to tour for a few years and play alongside seasoned live bands and see how they arranged songs for live settings,” explains Hermo. These experiences helped Hermo navigate the recording process with new intention and dynamism, further emboldened by rising engineer Scoops Dardaris (They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Another Michael, Undeath), who re-recorded the entire album with Hermo after they scrapped the initial Spellbound recordings — this time with the help of longtime bandmate Emma Willer, drummer Noah Dardaris, and bassist Davey Alaimo.

In the Spellbound sonic universe, enchanting hooks about friendship and growing up in New Jersey orbit driving verses that prize brevity, never laboring longer than necessary. On lead single “Rocky Road,” Boyscott explore the mental gymnastics required for a career in music, pulling on the threads of fear and excitement they experienced in their early tours. Such reflection is abundant on Spellbound: “Arthur Kill” refers to the peculiar beauty of a boat graveyard in the Arthur Kill tidal strait; where “Lima” interpolates a song that stuck with Hermo since high school. All told, Spellbound continues what Boyscott started with Goose Bumps, honing their pristinely arranged indie pop morsels into a fully realized sound that vindicates the near ten-year wait.