On New Self, The Bobby Lees sound bigger, bolder, and more dangerous than ever. This stellar trio, ailing from Woodstock, NY, is fronted by the feral charisma of Sam Quartin, alongside the killer rhythm section of drummer Macky Bowman, and bassist Kendall Wind. They have always specialized in Punk Rock that feels one step away from collapse. On New Self, the band sharpens that chaos into something unexpectedly expansive. Produced by Dave Sardy and Alex Pasco, the album lets the band’s scorched riffs and howling energy echo across a wider sonic landscape on the eight tracks assembled here without sacrificing any of their grime-coated urgency.
After burnout and a brief hiatus nearly derailed the group, New Self arrives with the force of a hard-earned rebirth. Ms. Quartin’s title-track confession, “I wish you could meet my new self,” captures the album’s emotional center: survival, reinvention, and learning how to keep going without self-destruction. Songs like the explosive “All I Got” and the seething “Napoleon” channel that tension into blistering punk catharsis, while their swaggering take on PJ Harvey’s “50ft Queenie” feels gleefully unhinged. The Bobby Lees haven’t mellowed with age, but instead they’ve simply learned how to weaponize their scars into something louder, fiercer, and impossible to ignore.
