More people need to know about Medium Build. Nick Carpenter’s music hits the same sweet spot that has made artists like Noah Kahan and Role Model resonate with such large audiences. His songs are emotionally candid, conversational, catchy, and built to be shouted back by a crowd. He has serious songwriting chops, and the songs on his new album, King of Having Fun, are really, really good.
The irony is that Carpenter does not sound particularly interested in being known. Throughout the album, he writes about avoiding other people’s attention and turning his most difficult thoughts into art. Music feels less like a path to recognition than a therapeutic necessity. Songwriting gives him somewhere to place everything he feels, allowing him to reveal himself while maintaining a layer of protection.
The follow-up to 2024’s Country, King of Having Fun was recorded live in the studio with Carpenter’s friends and collaborators. That communal approach can be heard throughout its 14 tracks, which move between indie rock, country, folk, pop, and electronic production without feeling disjointed. The album captures two equally compelling sides of Medium Build: the rageful, high-energy performer who can command a loud room, and the introspective songwriter increasingly drawn toward love, family, gratitude, and a quieter life.
King of Having Fun starts small. The minute-long “Every Noise Is You” opens with what sounds like an accordion before other delicate instrumentation begins to enter. It has the unfinished intimacy of a demo, but that simplicity is exactly what makes it so sweet. You can hear the individual instruments and the people playing them. Before the album expands into its louder moments, Carpenter invites listeners into the room.
That intimacy continues on “Do Something Productive,” a confessional track that makes it sound like Carpenter is sitting directly in front of you. He sings about the fear that he ruins everything, but a sweet beat and an incredibly catchy melody prevent the song from sinking beneath the weight of that admission.
Then “Perceived” immediately takes off. Carpenter considers what it means to make art while wanting to escape the attention that comes with sharing it. The song captures a distinctly modern tension: the desire to express yourself publicly without surrendering yourself to public consumption. Carpenter’s writing sounds effortless, but his observations land because they are so specific.
From there, the album begins moving between Medium Build’s softer and more volatile sides.
“Bird Woman” arrives with a raging introduction, a slight filter over Carpenter’s voice, and a grittiness that reminded me of Coconut Records pushed into rougher territory. That energy gives way to “Home Depot,” a pure country song with a hooky chorus and gorgeous background harmonies. Carpenter’s approach to genre is playful but never ironic. He knows how to write a country song just as well as he knows how to build an indie-rock anthem or a tender acoustic ballad.
“It’s Not Easy (Falling in Love)” briefly sounds like The 1975 at its opening, with digital production adding a glossy texture. I especially love the way Carpenter stretches and emphasizes certain syllables in the chorus. Those small vocal choices give the song personality and keep its depiction of falling in love from becoming overly sentimental.
Carpenter balances that sincerity with a wonderfully strange sense of humor. On “Cone Off,” he compares his newfound freedom to a dog having its cone removed and a contract worker finally getting paid. Electric guitar pushes the song forward before it ends with barking and praise for a “good girl.” It is silly, specific, and strangely triumphant, capturing the uninhibited joy suggested by the album’s title.
“Feed the Boys” brings the record back down to earth. The sound of a car starting places the listener inside a memory of Carpenter driving with his mother. As he reflects on his childhood and the time they spent together, the song becomes one of the album’s sweetest moments. “In My Gut,” a country ballad, continues this softer stretch and gives Carpenter’s voice room to carry the emotion.
Then comes “Chill,” my favorite song on the album. Carpenter begins with the realization that someone he thought was easygoing was anything but. The song eventually erupts into a hard-rock chorus driven by electric guitar, allowing the album’s simmering tension to burst through. It is funny, irritated, and enormously cathartic. This is Medium Build at his best, turning an ordinary conversational observation into something a room full of people will eventually scream together.
“Downpour” keeps that momentum going. Its beat makes it perfect driving music, while Carpenter’s voice sounds especially strong as he sings about wanting to return home to the person he loves. If you are a Noah Kahan fan and have not listened to Medium Build yet, this is your sign. Carpenter shares Kahan’s gift for pairing big, accessible melodies with intensely personal writing, but his willingness to venture into grittier rock, country, and electronic territory gives Medium Build a world of his own.
The conflict introduced on “Perceived” returns more explicitly on “Armor,” the album’s lead single. Over a propulsive electronic beat, Carpenter examines his impulse to transform self-loathing into art. Writing becomes both release and defense. By putting his pain into music, he can share it without allowing the audience to possess all of him.
The title track complicates the playful promise of King of Having Fun. Carpenter writes about numbness, scrolling, drugs, and the habits that once shaped his life. He looks back at an older version of himself, someone who might have appeared to be having fun while feeling almost nothing at all. Its bridge builds through a series of memories and details that hit hard, revealing the loneliness hiding beneath the album’s title.
Carpenter does not present happiness as a permanent state he has finally unlocked. The quieter life he is building with the people he loves exists alongside his anger, self-doubt, and capacity for self-destruction. Growth has not made him less complicated. It has given him more reasons to remain present.
The final track, “Thank You, Cook,” closes the album with soft acoustic instrumentation and genuine gratitude. Sonically, it bookends “Every Noise Is You,” returning to the intimacy of the opening after traveling through country ballads, electronic beats, hard-rock choruses, and moments of total release. It is a gentle and satisfying way to end an album that often sounds like Carpenter learning to express appreciation without losing the messiness that makes his writing so compelling.
King of Having Fun proves that Medium Build could reach a much larger audience without sanding down what makes him special, whether or not Carpenter wants that kind of recognition. These songs do not feel written in pursuit of visibility. They feel necessary, as if he needs somewhere to put his anger, gratitude, fear, humor, and love. Songwriting allows him to tell us everything while still protecting the person behind it.
Across the album, he is loud, tender, guarded, exposed, and fully alive. More people should know his name, even if part of him would rather not be perceived at all.
King of Having Fun is out on September 4 via slowplay/Island Records.
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