While plenty of their 2010s power-pop peers have reunited, the members of Cayetana are making the most of their breakup. After the Philadelphia trio called it quits in 2019, bandleader Augusta Koch focused on her own project, Gladie, in collaboration with her partner and Cayetana producer Matt Schimelfenig. Across two albums and several EPs, Koch has shied away from her punk roots, favoring a more stripped-back singer-songwriter approach. But on her latest LP, No Need to Be Lonely, she reconnects with the punchy hooks and confidence of her previous work while taking bigger creative risks.
On No Need to Be Lonely, Koch wanted to honor her friendships, both in her writing and in the album’s collaborative nature. She shared demos with one of her oldest pals in the industry, Jeff Rosenstock, who was so moved by the material that he signed on as producer. Rosenstock’s touch is subtle: He’s not bringing in his signature frenzied DIY maximalism but rather fine-tuning Koch’s noisier inclinations. With the help of those closest to her, Koch returns to her pop-punk roots without feeling trapped in nostalgia, treating the sound as a vehicle for anthemic affirmations about self-improvement and the power of community.
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From the get-go, Lonely reintroduces the herculean energy of her pre-Gladie songwriting. She kicks things up from drowned-out and tinny to a bona fide thrasher in “Push Me Down,” introducing her first proper punk album in years with dueling, flanged guitars and thundering drums. On “Brace Yourself,” Koch sings about her frustration at seeing the world move on while a friend struggles with an illness, while her band—Schimelfenig, bassist Evan Demianczyk, drummer Miles Ziskind, and Liz Parsons on backing vocals—roars behind her in support. “How dare the morning look so peaceful when it knows your fragile state?” she wonders. She delivers the chorus, “I won’t hold back the compliment/I’ll be careful with how my time is spent,” with both sweetness and rage: the sound of putting up a brave front while battling inner turmoil.
Koch again touches on the importance of friendship in the unwaveringly optimistic “Future Spring.” To complement its lyrics about uplifting others and reminding them of their worth, she brings in some of her closest friends—including Rosenstock and Schimelfenig, former Cayetana bandmates Allegra Anka and Kelly Olsen, former Chumped singer Anika Pyle, and Saintseneca’s Caeleigh Featherstone. They deliver the chorus as a warm welcome: “Hey, you’re invited/And we’re glad you’re here.”
Not every big swing lands. “Fix Her,” which takes a shot at soulful piano balladry before blooming into a full-blown rock song, feels stale against the weight of Koch’s earnest songwriting. The instrumentals undercut the payoff of the chorus, where her voice cracks as she wails, “I can’t fix her/But I can fix me if I try.” Where “Fix Her” fails to match the intensity of the lyrics, “Talk Past Each Other” bets the house on pop melody, lending some triumph to Koch’s words about the journey toward stability (“When I stopped people pleasing/I started to bloom for no reason”). There’s a fleeting moment where her yowls remind me of Cayetana’s 2014 track “Black Hills.” But while she once sought freedom, Koch has now found it: On No Need to Be Lonely, she has learned to walk away from what doesn’t serve her and celebrate the parts that do.
