New Orleans duo Twisted Teens have released The Holy Cross Tigers through Sub Pop, their third album of 2026. Caspian Hollywell and RJ Santos follow two earlier releases with a record lasting around half an hour. Critic Evan Zuri describes songs about heartbreak built with guitar, lap steel, drum machine and tape.
Twisted Teens have released The Holy Cross Tigers through Sub Pop. The New Orleans duo’s third album of 2026 arrives on the 6 November date announced by the label in September. Reviewing the new record for Northern Transmissions, Evan Zuri describes approximately half an hour of music that retains the group’s rough melodic character while giving heartbreak greater weight.[1], [2]
Zuri hears natural imagery running through Hollywell’s writing. He connects the fading flower in Blue Rose with the experience of being replaced, while Every Flower turns toward seeds growing in darkness. He describes that song’s opening as a combination of pedal steel and electronic keyboards, followed by a sampled spoken passage at the end. The closing Darker the Night Is the Brighter I See combines group vocals, altered harmonies and acoustic guitar in his account.[1]
Lap steel, guitar, drum machine and tape underpin the sound Zuri praises. He singles out the steel solo in I Spend My Time Crying and the toy-keyboard sound in Armed With a Vision. His reservations concern Figure It Out, whose acoustic opening he admires but whose second half he finds repetitive. He also considers some songs similar to one another. Those musical assessments belong to the critic.[1]
