(Don Giovanni Records, CD, vinyl and digital)
On their 2021 LP, Quitter, Portland, Maine, indie-rock act Weakened Friends took a torch to the romantic notion of the touring band. All about burnout and the cost of trying to make it as a musician, the album seethed with frustration and a sense of claustrophobia.
The trio has returned four years later with Feels Like Hell, which widens the lens to capture a society writhing in contradiction, controversy and heartbreak. “Remember when they told you you’d be great?” vocalist and guitarist Sonia Sturino sings on “Weightless,” a raging, Pixies-esque rocker. “Now every single day’s a bill that you can’t pay, / You scroll your life away until there’s nothing.”
The album’s 12 tracks serve as a warning against nihilism, even as they straddle the edge of that tempting trap. From the exhaustion of late-stage capitalism on “Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out)” to frustration with AI bullshit on “NPC” — the latter featuring a truly bonkers guitar solo from shredder extraordinaire Buckethead — Sturino describes feeling surrounded by adversaries at every turn.
Feels Like Hell is the first record the band has released since Sturino came out as nonbinary. “I feel like I don’t have the anxiety around feminizing my voice,” they told New Noise Magazine in October. “Just from a sound point of view, it’s been nice to just be able to be me.”
Sturino is married to bassist Annie Hoffman, and much of this record focuses on the ups and downs of their relationship, as did Quitter and their 2018 debut LP, Common Blah. That fuzzed-out, post-punk Fleetwood Mac situation makes for high drama and songs brimming with passion, love and heartbreak. But Feels Like Hell isn’t a gorgeous piece of music full of recriminations and bursts of jealousy like Rumours. Rather, it’s an emotional roller-coaster ride through all the hopes and fears of modern love.
“I’m so tired,” Sturino sings on “Great Expectations,” a stirring ballad that builds to a massive, pulsating coda with drummer Adam Hand exploding across the kit. “I keep lighting fires, / I keep making it hell for myself.”
That tune feels like a tentative step into more hook-driven, pop-adjacent sounds for a band known as a raucous live act full of punk energy, and it’s typical of the album. Feels Like Hell is by far the band’s most accessible record, hewing closer to the sonic textures of ’90s alt-rock radio hits than its previous, more DIY work.
Feels Like Hell has plenty of tough love for listeners, reminding us that life is messy, love is flawed, and the world will try to destroy you if you don’t rally around your people and your joy. The theme of raging against the dying of the light gives the record a needed punk sneer, yet beneath it all runs a surprisingly optimistic spine. Is everything going to be all right? Probably not, but Weakened Friends are saying that through all the hell, you can still feel human and let yourself love, as long as you know what you’re signing up for.
Feels Like Hell is out now on major streaming services. Weakened Friends play the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on Friday, November 21.
This article appears in Nov 19-25 2025.
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