Warm and wistful, unvarnished and intimate, Aerial East makes anthems for sitting in our own groundlessness and finding a specific peace within it. Her new album ‘Try Harder,’ out via Partisan Records (Fontaines D.C., IDLES, Laura Marling), draws from East’s teenage years in suburban Texas, resulting in a beautiful ode to those of us who feel like our edges are rough, that perhaps we don’t always quite fit in.

Through deceptively simple lyrics and a conspicuous absence of percussion, ‘Try Harder’ is a tight yet eclectic collection of songs, both sonically and emotionally. East dives into what she has known – adolescence, heartbreak, coming into a new social consciousness and managing a perpetual feeling of unanchored-ness – in the hopes to tell stories we don’t hear often.

As the daughter of a military family, East spent her late childhood in Europe and teenage years in Abilene, Texas. After dropping out of community college, she moved to NYC where she’d meet a group of musicians whom she would come to befriend and collaborate with including Okay Kaya, Kelsey Lu, Wet + more.

“Otherwordly” – Chris Hawkins (6Music)

“It’s just beautiful” – Adele Roberts (Radio 1)

The first pressing of the album arrives on gold vinyl.