Today, Wandering Years return with You Are Covered in Brooklyn Amber, a new EP via Candlepin Records and Better Days Will Haunt You; a short, yet mighty collection that finds the New York group, fronted by Gene Stroman, embarking on a lo-fi endeavor and an expression of influence and melodic progression. “Creeks overflow / Flowers Grow / Valleys mold and boulders roll and roll”, opens the title track as a clear marking of new beginnings – the EP grows with articulated distortion roaming in the head space as the title track poses with harmonious voicings and indie-rock elegance – where Wandering Years soon proves that they are a band on a mission.

Compiled of songs written between 2022-2024, You Are Covered in Brooklyn Amber is an album layered by a multitude of melodic guitars and methodical instrumental drives that pair together with such sincerity and intention to progress. Following their 2023 debut, Mountain Laughed, this new collection repurposes two tracks from that recording session as well as three new recordings made on a tascam recorder. Songs like “Summer Dress”, one of the band’s oldest songs, takes advantage of the space with large guitar solos and pounding percussion as the EP’s heaviest rocker, while “Geologic” explodes with tenacity and tension, protruding the very confines of a lo-fi recording, as Stroman’s hushed vocals are brought out further by delicate, yet purposefully spirited harmonies that manage to stop you in your tracks.

Through the noise, though, comes a level of sincerity that is oftentimes overlooked in the world of shoegaze and gaze-adjacent groups. “You’re the Chrysler Building” bleeds within its patience, where the hiss of the tascam’s bandwidth is a simmer of reflection and a journey of finding your way back home – “Campfire sparks and Springsteen’s Nebraska / Free as can be and headed back east” – building upon personal moments of introspection as a natural open playing field to explore. “You Are Covered (Acoustic)” is a return to their Virginia roots, a display of tender folk twang and alluring repetition of melodies as Wandering Years revisits the opening track as if its an entirely knew song, yet leaving its holistic impression of fresh starts even more tender and accessible. “Progress is slow / But the seeds are sewn / Believers know / Lovers glow and glow” – told within the frame of a simple guitar song, plays a triumphant expression with heart filled gratification at its core, because Stroman and co. know it’s best to keep your feet planted – in the case of You Are Covered in Brooklyn Amber, and let the pedal steel play you out.

Through Columbus, Ohio’s Better Days Will Haunt You, there will be a limited run of vinyl of You Are Covered in Brooklyn Amber. Wandering Years will be playing an album release show Friday Sept 13 at Heaven Can Wait in NYC.

Written by Shea Roney