Geese’s lead singer Cameron Winter croons “I tried” in Getting Killed’s opening track “Trinidad.” From there, a funky bassline, guitar call-and-response, ever-tapping highhat and JPEGMAFIA screaming “There’s a bomb in my car” kick off what may be the best indie rock album of 2025.
The Brooklyn band has just about every music media outlet singing praises for their latest album — and for good reason: It’s really freaking good. Produced by Kenneth Blume, formerly known as Kenny Beats, the album does not hesitate to break free from the conventions of a rock record. There’s no standard progression, no consistent instrumentation. Each song is a new experience.
While it may be a challenging listen for some due to its experimental nature and Winter’s unique voice, the album is incredibly tight sonically. It doesn’t feel like a garage rock record recorded directly onto a laptop. Rather, it takes to the studio and absolutely sprints away with it, bending the limits of indie rock to its breaking point. It’s organized and precise, yet at the same time unsystematic and chaotic. The weird melodies are locked into the grooves, with Winter’s wailing stitching the album together like an expert tailor and Blume’s production giving it the freedom to find its ideal level. The record is intense but not overwhelming. It’s hard-rocking indie music that completely rips, beautifully navigating from mellowed intimacy to a full symphony bursting out of the speaker.
The instruments are undoubtedly the stars of the show. The bass tone is gnarly, almost tickling the brainstem throughout the record. Drums play a more subtle role, letting the music flow around them like boulders in the stream. They anchor the experimental sounds while giving them room to go every which direction. The guitars mix in unique tones (you can literally feel the buzz of the currents in the pickup coils), and repetitive — but not derivative — riffs carry the songs forward. Even though the assortment seems random, it serves the band’s purpose impeccably, moving from horns to piano to anything and everything in between. The result is a mix that leaves no empty space — every piece of sonic information feels deeply intentional.
The first single off this record, “Taxes” may be the synecdoche of this album. It’s all-encapsulating, building and building into yell-singing with synched rhythms and jangly guitar riffs. Still, while “Taxes” may best exemplify the album, the rest of the songs carry their own weight. The tracks sound cohesive and expand off one another with enough variability to keep it fresh. It has songs with a melodic pop-esque sound, like “Au Pays du Cocaine,” and others with more of the 3D Country jam-band-groove with “Cobra.” Absurd lyrics are present throughout the record, but on no track more so than “Long Island City Here I Come,” which uses biblical allusions and strange imagery to confront finding and freeing yourself in an ever-changing, slippery world.
In a time devoid of hope and innovation for rock music, Getting Killed may be what helps bring rock back to the norm and out of random “Dad Rock” playlists that are thrown on ironically. Indie rock never died, but a generation of kids seem to have forgotten about the joy and experimentation of guitar music, replacing it with DJ decks and overdone mashups for sweaty frat parties and bars.
Getting Killed is an inspiring album. It’s restless with the possibilities of what can be done. It’s music that makes you feel something, from wanting to dance, to gouging your eyes out, to screaming at the top of your lungs from a rooftop. Building and bursting with sound, it’s unpretentiously groovy. It fights against being categorized as any one thing except a Geese record. Unflinchingly experimental, this album explores freedom, the lack thereof and a search for identity and purpose while confronted with the absurdity of modern life.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel in awe of Geese’s improvisation, sucked into a black hole of musicality that refuses to spit me out. This album is worth listening to more than once. There will always be something new to hear or glean from Winter’s unique vocals. Geese seems to be steering indie rock in a new direction, and I thoroughly believe that, in a few years, this album will be viewed as a modern classic.
Daily Arts Contributor Miles Anderson can be reached at milesand@umich.edu.
