MJ Lenderman, Iron & Wine Elevate Houndmouth’s ‘Lordy’

Southern Indiana-reared rockers Houndmouth will end a five-year break from releasing new music with the album Lordy, which will be released July 10 on Dualtone Records. The title cut and “Tiger Blood” can both be sampled below.

Produced by Brad Cook (Mavis Staples, Bon Iver), the album leans into uncluttered arrangements, raw performances and songs that feel lived-in rather than labored over. Frontman Matt Myers wrote much of the record at home while strumming a Martin acoustic in his kitchen as the sun came through the windows.

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That shift wasn’t just aesthetic. For a stretch of nearly two years, Myers says he couldn’t write at all. “I was all raw emotion,” he explains. After a decade of steady output, including the platinum-certified 2015 single “Sedona,” the usual songwriting instincts dried up. Life didn’t slow down though, as relationships ended, new ones began and the emotional backlog made it harder, not easier, to create. “I was feeling so much that I just couldn’t write anything,” he says.

The breakthrough came during a visit to Cook, who had previously worked with the band on its prior album, 2021’s Good for You. What started as a casual reconnection turned into a creative jumpstart. Songs began to take shape quickly, including early standouts like “Tiger Blood,” a ragged folk-rock build that crescendos into a full-throated release, and the hushed, intimate title track.

During recording, Myers would bring a song into Cook’s North Carolina studio, cut a one-take acoustic version and build outward from there. “I told myself not to get lost in the mechanics or the minutia,” he says. “If I had an idea, I just wanted to record it as quickly as I could.”

Acting as both producer and sounding board, Cook helped assemble a sympathetic cast of collaborators drawn from the modern Americana and indie orbit. Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam dropped in during sessions for the closing track “Holy Moses,” while MJ Lenderman contributed his guitar work across multiple songs. Brad’s brother Phil Cook also appears.

“I’ve spent years working with peers and contemporaries,” Myers enthuses, “but this felt different. I was surrounded by people who were literally trying to pick me up and help me out. They pushed me to do the work.”

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