Queen of Jeans

This fall, Philly’s indie sweethearts Queen of Jeans return with hard/SWEET, their new album about how tenderness can be an act of resistance in a world that rewards cynicism and rage. Out October 9 on Memory Music, the label founded by Grammy Award-winning producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight), the album title is taken from a lyric in the album’s closing track (“I could be hard or I could be sweet, just tell me the version you’re needing of me"), but works as a theme for the record as a whole. Throughout, Queen of Jeans balances the tension between self-protection and kindness. Produced by the band and Justin Bartlett, mixed by Yip and Bartlett, and mastered by Yip, hard/SWEET is a fitting title for the band’s fourth LP. Since forming in 2017, Queen of Jeans’ sound has always been soft around the edges but explores feelings that are anything but. As their sound has developed, they’ve refined a signature built around dreamy guitars, adventurous instrumentation, crushing lyricism, and one of the most underrated voices in modern indie rock: vocalist/guitarist Miri Devora. With guitarist Mattie Glass and bassist Andrew Nitz, Queen of Jeans are effortlessly timeless but still of-the-times, and continue to be one of indie’s most consistently compelling bands.