LISTEN: Stephen Becker’s “Careless” Blends Longing With Experimental Tendencies

Stephen Becker has always written songs the way a diary gets written: honest, sparing no detail, and best understood in retrospect. On his self-produced fourth LP, Gravity Blanket, the NYC songwriter arrives in full bloom, finding meaning in the debris of an ordinary life. The 12-track collection balances meticulous craft with heartfelt simplicity, all while confronting the inward rabbit hole of his own past, present, and future. Gravity Blanket is set to be released on April 24. 

A bedroom artist with a jazz musician’s discipline, Becker pushes the genre forward by melding homespun indie rock with the elastic production of contemporary art-pop. These thoughtful, unorthodox compositions serve as the bed for lyrical memoirs as heavy and snug as the album’s title—spanning anecdotes of a childhood revelation at the Grand Canyon, teenage hallucinations on LA freeways, and a scarring breakup at the NYC Ballet, all punctuated by the seemingly banal wreckage of lost bikes, stolen packs of gum, slinkys, and Haribo frogs.

“Careless,” the latest preview of Becker’s anticipated new LP, is a quick, crunchy introduction to the artist’s refreshing pop tendencies. The new single redefines quaint music with juxtaposing tones that give this unassuming performance a lively, experimental edge. With searing, wildly impressive guitar riffs driving and soaring vocals that maintain a lo-fi warmth, the simplistic yet thudding percussion of “Careless” anchors the performance to reality, just as much as the songwriting. This new tune finds Becker living in blissful love built on ignorance, an unsturdy material to build a relationship on. The artist lives in an oblivious mindstate, being driven by the heart to return to something that is blatantly one-sided to everyone except Becker. The relatable poetry of “Careless” allows the artist’s risky tendencies to sound digestible and welcoming, a hint of what is to be expected on Gravity Blanket.