Hovvdy, the project of Will Taylor and Charlie Martin, announced Big World, their sixth full-length album, due August 14th via Arts & Crafts.
The songs of Big World find Hovvdy trading in overt emotional directness for subject matter that leans enigmatic, contemplating their place in the world through a mosaic of songs that sees the band at their most secure and self-aware.
Since 2024’s Hovvdy, the band’s most expansive album to date, which earned them the coveted Best New Album distinction from Pitchfork, both Martin and Taylor have become published songwriters in their new home of Nashville – a career development that heavily informed their approach to making Big World. “The last record felt like such a generous offering: a double-album, deeply personal, you can literally hear me crying on some songs,” says Martin. “With this one, we wanted to take on the challenge of making something more concise and to the point, and give the fans something that feels like a shorter but more exciting ride.”
Over a handful of recording sessions between Nashville and Asheville in fall 2025, Martin and Taylor adopted a recording approach that was new for them as a band: coming to the sessions only with instrumentals rather than fully-drafted demos, choosing to write and respond to the songs in real time. “When it comes to the music, there’s literally never questions between Charlie and me, only answers,” says Taylor. “We can always show up and not have to worry about the music, and that continues to amaze me.” They viewed this as a fun, new challenge for them and, with the backing of their longtime collaborator Ben Littlejohn who serves as producer on Big World, felt less pressured and more empowered to make a record that was more sonically immediate, but emotionally ambiguous. Each song holds up a mirror to the band, both looking back at where they’ve come from and forward towards where they might be heading, sometimes proud, sometimes defeated, but always humbled by the enormity of the world and their place in it.
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