Geese have been going crazy as of late. Have you seen it? Celebrating their 2025 album Getting Killed, the New York four-piece are currently on a world tour, and their success seems to skyrocket further with every concert.
Getting Killed is their third album after 2023’s 3D Country and 2021’s Projector. Formed when they were in high school, they had to sneak into their own afterparty for their first gig due to being underage. Compared to where they are now, performing sell-out shows at iconic venues and festivals such as Coachella, Electric Picnic and RANDL, it is impossible not to be impressed by their growth in such a short time, and while they are still in their early twenties.
Cameron Winter, whose solo album Heavy Metal (2024) has received critical acclaim (GQ magazine: “one of the most audacious and self-possessed singer-songwriter records of this century so far,”) performed at Carnegie Hall in December. This concert drew widespread media attention to Geese for Winter’s astonishing performance and has, in critics’ eyes, likened him to greats such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young for performing at this iconic venue so early in his career.
So we’ve seen praise for the group that has been named America’s best young rock band. But let’s dig deeper into the music: what is the fuss over this band really about?
We could start anywhere, so let’s go with sound: a well-blended mixture of smooth guitar, rock and roll swing, and vocals varying from falsetto, to monotone, to lonely and lovesick wails, Getting Killed is an album that is very sonically varied and has tunes for many different moods — the best way to experience this is to listen, of course. Themes in their lyricism mirror this variety as well: from strained relationships to mental illness to isolation in society, Geese makes for both fun listening and an introspective, cathartic kind, too. A line I think reflects both of these is from ‘Half Real’: “He may say that real love / Is a nail in the wall / That’s how a lot of assholes feel / But that’s not how I feel at all”.
One of their most iconic songs, ‘Au Pays du Cocaine,’ can be revered for the many different interpretations it possesses. Some lyrics from what I consider this beautifully crafted song include “You can stay with me and just pretend I’m not there,” “You can be free and still come home” and “You can change and still choose me”. A primary subject matter of this song is parent-child relationships (as Geese’s music video certainly suggests) and the pain of a parent wanting the best for their child but also not wanting to feel neglected. Of course, the concept can be applied to any sort of relationship. The American singer King Princess, who covered the song for BBC Radio 1, points to queer love and suggests the song can be considered a lesbian anthem for this very subject matter. Whatever way it’s interpreted, I think that like many great songs, it speaks to the core of the human experience. For this, it gets the hype it deserves.
To place Geese in context, they may be considered part of movements such as indie rock, post-punk and experimental rock, with influences such as The Velvet Underground, Radiohead and the Strokes (who many critics have compared them to). They are also an example of a modern-day garage band – fulfilling the criteria by having recorded their first pieces in one of the members’ basement as high schoolers. This is something we hear less and less of these days, in the age of AI music and billionaire singers paid to record songs they didn’t write; Geese’s authenticity is refreshing. In this way, it could be said that they are keeping the garage movement alive, paving the way for future artists as they reinvent and rejuvenate the genre.
“Cameron Winter with Geese, Boston 2024 (cropped2)” by Lygonstreet is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.