Nate Amos is one of the best songwriters of our time. Member of the Brooklynite group Water from Your Eyes and singer-songwriter under the alias This Is Lorelei (TIL), Amos’ ability to juxtapose deep inner thoughts and feelings with the mundanity of everyday life is extraordinary. His songs could soundtrack funerals, weddings or the lonesome walk home after getting thrown out of a party.
Amos’ musical prowess was put on full display back in 2024 when, after years of creating mixtapes and EPs, he dropped his first official full album in “Box for Buddy, Box for Star.” It was a marvel of a debut album that straddled folk-rock, synth-pop and alt-country and showed Amos’ mastery in lyricism, vocals and production. In 2025, he released the follow-up “Holo Boy,” which was largely a compilation of his mixtape-era work under TIL. And now, only one year later, we have TIL’s third album, “The Singer in my Band.” Does it stack up? Kind of.
Compared to “Box for Buddy, Box for Star,” Amos definitely took fewer risks on “The Singer in My Band.” There are no piano and autotune-led synth-pop songs like “Dancing in the Club” or raucous country-rock barnburners like “I’m All Fucked Up.” These tracks—and the debut of TIL as a whole—displayed Amos’s capabilities as a singer, songwriter and creative force with the reins of production and instrumentation fully unique to him. While this does create songs with weaker identity on their own, it produces a stronger album listening experience with a cohesive identity throughout.
If you only listened to the opening track, “I Will Eat My Heart In The Morning Light,” you would get the impression that this album has some influences from Garth Brooks, and perhaps Johnny Cash with its Wild West symbolism and flowing lyrics about yearning for a lover. Amos’ vocals cruise over a beautifully warm combination of heavy bass, soft meandering guitars and a smooth drum line. It is as if The Decemberists were really into The Chicks.
Album single “Oh No Now My” is driven by a tight, heavier guitar riff and loud drums, accompanied by a strained vocal performance from Amos. Though one could classify the sound as soft rock, listeners should just vibe to the track’s strong, lo-fi images. The first single released from the album, “Billy Came Back,” is a songwriting masterpiece that uses a drum machine loop and spaghetti-western guitars. Amos, using an incredibly strong country pastiche, evokes a compelling story about a loose-cannon folk hero named Billy who, through the powerful imagery Amos evokes, turns a simple karaoke performance into a transformative experience.
“Watching Heaven Fall” and “The Singer In My Band,” both placed in the middle of the 11-track record, pull the most from bluegrass inspiration, which makes sense considering Amos’ background as the son of a bluegrass duo. The two are very honky-tonky and bring a sing-along mentality with catchy, simple choruses that almost sound like youth pastor prayer songs. One can easily imagine a summer camp singing along to “Watching Heaven Fall” over a campfire and s’mores as a counselor strums a beat-up acoustic guitar.
The penultimate track “And I Haven’t Seen My Love in Quite a While” delivers a similar vibe with a chipper vocal performance, but adds calming blues guitar riffs and a more folksy refrain on the lyrics, especially around the chorus lamenting a love Amos has not seen in, as you can guess, quite a while. A much more dour song on the album, “Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever,” also has these bluegrass and folksy influences but pushes it more in a guitar-centered soft rock direction that, though turns slightly boring by the end, is ultimately relaxing.
The album’s most impactful emotional moment lands in “The Kid With the Crown.” The lyrics, while simple, evoke some of the most painful and visceral images of the entire project. “You can say it’s funny, buddy / I’m not laughing at all,” has and will continue to make me tear up whenever I hear it. The song’s production includes an oppressive yet flowing combination of guitar riffs and layered vocals—tinged with just a bit of sadness—making the track which I recommend you listen to above all others. This complements the final track, “Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness,” a track with a laid-back, almost Midwest-emo presentation with sobering vocals that gives time for the listener to breathe and decompress. A singular but stark guitar leads the track as its one and only piece of instrumentation.
This time around, Amos wants to show who he is deep down as an artist. In “The Singer in My Band,” Amos delivers a strong listening experience from beginning to end that—though pulling from country, soft rock, bluegrass, folk and more—remains unmistakably his. The album does take more time to really grab listeners’ attention and has less flourishes compared to his previous work. It has a more mature and slower sound, with less to offer off the top, but perhaps, if you are willing to listen, is something you can truly connect with.