Boy Harsher - Careful

Boy Harsher's Careful is a 2019 darkwave record built for empty highways and dim club corners, the moment the duo's cult following started to look like something much bigger.

Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller formed the project in Savannah, Georgia, before settling in Northampton, Massachusetts, and released this second album on their own Nude Club label. Muller's minimal, pulsing synth work leaves plenty of space, and Matthews fills it with a voice that moves between whispered intimacy and cool, commanding detachment.

Opener "Keep Driving" sets the mood with a slow, steady pulse, while "Face the Fire" stretches into a brooding groove that feels like a confession made in the dark. "Come Closer" is pure seduction over a cold, insistent beat, and "LA" captures the loneliness of a city at night with icy synths and a hint of menace.

The whole record feels cinematic, as though each song belongs to a film that hasn't been made yet, all neon reflections, rain-slick streets and long silences between lovers.

Careful helped carry Boy Harsher from basement shows to a much wider audience of goth and synth devotees, and on vinyl its chilly, intimate atmosphere feels closer than ever. Best played after midnight, with the volume up and the lights way down.