The music of Endearments has always turned a mirror on the inner self, reflecting life’s deeply personal, often painful moments in the light of clarity and new resolve. Principal songwriter Kevin Marksson and his bandmates, guitarist Anjali Nair and drummer Will Haywood Smith, craft emotionally dense and instrumentally lush pop songs, viewed through the lens of contemporary, dreamy indie rock and embedded with a John Hughes-ian romanticism.

Drawing on the emotive qualities of 80s synthpop and late-90s emo in equal measure, An Always Open Door, Endearments’ first full-length record, fine-tunes this heartfelt songcraft, widening the band’s influences and turning up the volume while maintaining the raw lyrical storytelling that’s made them a mainstay in Brooklyn’s highly competitive scene. Marksson’s blitzing, blistering inner monologue on “Marianne” and the melancholic explosiveness of “Real Deal” conjure comparisons to the likes of Camera Obscura and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart; at the same time, Nair’s stirring, wall-of-sound guitars on “Summersun” and Haywood Smith’s maximalist drums on “Saline” evoke the textures of shoegaze and the driving rhythm of big beat.

This shift towards energetic indie rock accompanies a change in the band’s approach to songwriting, one that trades raw immediacy for meditative contemplation. “When I wrote the first two Endearments EPs, Father of Wands and It Can Be Like This, I was only recently outside of the events that inspired those songs: a failed marriage; a hopeful new relationship,” Marksson recalls. “When I sat down to write lyrics for our first full-length record, I had no intention of interrogating those memories and feelings again. Nevertheless, as the songs took shape, I felt myself looking back at the last six years with a renewed sense of curiosity.”

The end result is a record that reevaluates the past, foregrounding emotional truths through performances that are as kinetic as they are introspective. Produced by Abe Seiferth (Nation of Language, Guerilla Toss) and featuring additional vocals from Liv Price (Forever Honey) and guitars from Chris Croarkin (Diary), the album blends dreamy and down-to-earth influences into a vibrant, varied, and dynamic image of the band’s inner world.