Wisconsin’s folk-punk troubadour Brett Newski follows last year’s ameriCONa Pt. 1 LP with a new record that bears the telling motto Have a Thing, Miss Your Moment, Wait for the Revival. In eleven new songs he doubles down on his beautifully scrappy DIY ethos, landing somewhere between alt-country confession and fuzzed-out basement rock. Recorded straight to tape, the album embraces imperfection as rebellion: against polish, against AI sheen, against anything too clean.

The influence is so obvious that it would be strange not to mention it: the versatile artist has climbed onto the shoulders of Bob Dylan in his acoustic 1960s era, but wavering at that height, he cannot help but remain his idiosyncratic and sincere self. And so we get a witty, worn, and oddly uplifting performance, propelled by a lifer’s persistent heartbeat. These are lo-fi anthems for the appealingly out-of-step, with words, melodies, and vocals that stumble, wobble, and land just right.

Have a Thing, Miss Your Moment, Wait for the Revival—written, performed, recorded, mixed, and engineered by Brett Newski—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Nomad Union. The title track won’t be available on streaming services.

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