Hovvdy Returns With Sixth Studio Album ‘Big World’

Hovvdy has been making music for more than a decade, but on its sixth album, Big World, the Nashville-based duo of Will Taylor and Charlie Martin sounds remarkably comfortable with exactly where it is. Originally formed in Austin, Texas, Hovvdy has gradually expanded beyond the understated slowcore of its early work, incorporating twangy indie rock, acoustic ballads, pop-country and increasingly straightforward pop melodies.

The band’s 2021 album True love explored love in its many forms, while 2024’s self-titled Hovvdy was a sprawling double album that found Taylor and Martin confronting loss and major life changes with unusual emotional directness. Big World, comparatively, feels lighter on its feet. At 12 songs, it’s concise, occasionally mysterious and, most importantly, really fun to listen to.

There’s also something distinctly road-trip-ready about this album. Maybe it’s the combination of acoustic guitars, harmonica, pedal steel and easy drum beats, or the way Hovvdy can jump between country, ‘90s alternative rock and contemporary indie pop without making any of those transitions feel particularly dramatic. Whatever it is, Big World makes me want to get in a car and just go somewhere.

That feeling begins immediately with opener “Life So Wide.” The title alone makes you think about how enormous a life can feel, but the song itself is immediately comforting, with Martin jumping between memories, declarations of love and family annoyances over stripped-back guitar. That collage-like writing style runs throughout “Big World,” less interested in spelling out a specific message than capturing little fragments of a life.

“Way Down” follows with an easy drumbeat and recurring guitar refrain before “JJ” introduces a lighter pop sound. It begins with a beat that initially feels like Hovvdy might be heading somewhere completely different, eventually settling into soft, breezy melodies. By “What I Had,” complete with harmonica, I was fully convinced: this is a driving-with-the-windows-down album.

But Hovvdy is at its most interesting when the scenery starts changing. “Blast” rides a beat that weirdly, but effectively, reminds me of BROCKHAMPTON, mixing a ‘90s hip-hop quality with the haziness of a summer night. Then there’s “Starry,” which sounds exactly how you’d hope a song with that title would sound. Piano, strings, airy vocals and gorgeous harmonies turn it into something close to a lullaby. It’s sentimental without becoming overly saccharine, and I can easily imagine listening to it while staring up at a ridiculously clear night sky.

The transition into “Try Try Try” feels like getting back on the highway. One of the album’s poppiest moments, its propulsive rhythm and speak-sung delivery reminded me of the more country-influenced direction of The 1975’s recent work. It’s immediately followed by “Junk,” which slows everything down again. Taylor sings about fireworks, tools and miscellaneous objects alongside much larger questions about life, giving the song the oddly specific feeling of digging through a pile of old belongings and suddenly getting sentimental. A warped synth and bits of distortion make that nostalgia feel a little stranger around the edges.

“You Will Go Far” brings Hovvdy back toward classic indie pop-rock, although there’s something simultaneously surfy and woodsy about it. Somehow, it works. “Give It Away” leans further into country while slipping in some almost yacht-rock instrumentation, and by this point I kept thinking that fans of Role Model’s recent country-pop pivot would probably find plenty to love across “Big World.” “Untitled” pushes even further into that rootsier palette, with strings adding to its distinctly country feel.

Part of the album’s looseness can probably be attributed to the way it was made. After moving to Nashville and becoming published songwriters, Taylor and Martin approached Big World differently from their previous records. Working with longtime collaborator Bennett Littlejohn during sessions in Nashville and Asheville, they arrived with instrumentals rather than fully written demos, developing lyrics and melodies in real time. You can hear that spontaneity throughout the album. Even as Hovvdy moves between sounds, nothing feels overworked.

It all leads to “Wannabe (Radio Queen),” which starts relatively simply with acoustic guitar and vocals before steadily growing into something much bigger. Electric guitar, pedal steel and huge drums pile in until the song becomes a genuinely cinematic finale, with flashes of country, indie rock and even a little indie-sleaze swagger colliding together. For an album so interested in humility and the overwhelming size of the world around us, Hovvdy certainly isn’t afraid to end it on an epic note.

Martin has described Big World as the band’s “decade of Hovvdy” record, and that feels fitting. It doesn’t sound like two musicians desperately trying to reinvent themselves after ten years together. Instead, it sounds like two people who have accumulated enough influences, experiences and confidence to follow whatever idea interests them next. Big World might be concerned with how small we all are in the grand scheme of things, but Hovvdy sounds completely at home in the little corner of it Taylor and Martin have built for themselves. Give Big World a listen, or better yet, catch Hovvdy on the road opening for Bleachers and Wilco, two bands Hovvdy feels like a pretty perfect opener for.