The New Orleans-based duo of Caspian Hollywell and RJ Santos broke through in early 2026 with their second album, Blame the Clown—a no-bullshit introduction to their take on American vernacular music, blending folk punk and garage rock with a timeless country twang. Fast-forward eight breakneck months: The Holy Cross Tigers is Twisted Teens’ third album of the year (and their first release for Sub Pop), a loosely themed breakup record you might call the band’s Blood on the Tracks. Over 13 raw-nerved tracks, Hollywell writes himself out of a hole and finds flashes of absurdist poetry in sorrow, from barroom slow-dance number “I Spend My Time Crying” to “Blue Rose,” where flowers bloom in the dark soil of a split tree. As always, Hollywell howls in a voice that sounds weathered by cigarettes and whiskey, in constant conversation with Santos’ steel guitar, Mel Billiard’s guitar wizardry, and the chintzy brightness of rickety drum-machine rhythms. It all culminates in a beautifully broken closer: “Darker the Night Is the Brighter I See,” which finds Hollywell backed by a chorus of friendly ghosts: “It’s darker now than it used to be/That’s the brighter I see.”