The Driver Era - Obsession

Ross and Rocky Lynch spend half an hour chasing a feeling they can't shake on Obsession, The Driver Era's fourth studio album, pressed here on 140-gram vinyl.

The brothers launched The Driver Era after their years in R5, and by 2025 the project had grown into something sleeker and stranger than most pop-rock acts attempt. Obsession arrived on TOO Records after a long run of singles, with nearly every lyric written by the pair and producer Morgan Taylor Reid helping shape the sound.

That sound is nocturnal and restless. Synths hum beneath wiry guitar lines, disco basslines slip in when you least expect them, and the eighties hang around like neon on wet pavement. "You Keep Me Up at Night" opens with the kind of insomnia that feels good, "Touch" leans into a slinky, close-quarters groove, and "Same Old Story" makes a familiar heartbreak sound new. Fern drops in on "The Weekend," the only guest on a record that otherwise keeps things in the family.

Ross has described obsession as something you think about all the time and can't shake loose, and these eleven songs take that literally, circling love, commitment and change with nerve. Short, sleek and built for repeat plays, it suits a turntable perfectly: by the time the needle lifts, side one is already calling again.