By Jay Mukherjee
On the heels of 2026's excellent Varied Superstitions, comes another new record -- the 25th overall! -- by John Andrew Frederick and his crew, The Black Watch. The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop is, like their last record, produced by Rob Campanella (ex-The Brian Jonestown Massacre). Along with Rob playing guitar, the core lineup features Andy Creighton on drums and John Andrew Frederick's son, Chandler, handling bass and backing vocals.
Spoiler alert: I might have a real conundrum when compiling my end-of-year Best of 2026 lists for this site due to having to squeeze two brand new albums by the exact same artist into my top 10. A uniquely enjoyable problem to have! Normally, I'm not a fan of bands releasing music too quickly because I want to let the last record marinate. While most groups who rush out material get bogged down in a "same-y" sound -- cough, cough, a certain band with the words "Reds" and "Pinks" in their name, maybe? -- The Black Watch sidestep this trap mostly because their songcraft is so delightfully varied. Listening to this album feels like throwing a meticulously-curated playlist onto shuffle.
The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop delivers the band's signature cross-pollination of styles: from post-punk Bunnymen-esque tracks ("Everything Changed!" and "Her Halo") to light shoegaze (the title track) and jangle-pop ("Stars At Last"), right on through to psychedelia (the Beatles-esque "In Generalities"). This time around, we even get a very credible dance remix complete with a chorus on track 3 ("Sorrow's Crown").
The album kicks off with "Marie Bouzkova", a song named after a Czech tennis player I've actually heard of (though I'm a bigger fan of fellow Czech Karolina Muchova; sorry John). The song takes me back to another Black Watch favorite of mine, "Lovestruck", though this one boasts extra fuzzy overtones: "Mary has the most extraordinary face you'll see / but she would never have you think that way."
Next up is the fantastic "Never You Mind" which carries keyboard vibes reminiscent of "Wake Up Boo!"-era The Boo Radleys. The outro then explodes into a Waterboys-esque trumpet solo which only reinforced my realization that we simply need more trumpets in modern music! Lyrically, Frederick attempts to toss out reassurances, letting listeners know that everything is going to be okay: "Very very clearly / There's so much unknown / Very very dearly / Opportunities blown / Sadly sadly / You're waxing upset / Over things you'd better forget."
My personal favorite, however, is "Falter, Sputter, Fall" which opens with a cool Ride-style rhythm section before morphing into blissful shoegaze in the exact same vein as fellow L.A. band Film School. The nostalgic warmth of the sound also sends me right back to the classic shoegaze of Moose. In the liner notes, John Andrew Frederick writes that the song is about "how words always seem to fail us... think if you had to put into words the person you love the most." No argument there.
The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop by The Black Watch is out today. Details below.
[Photo: Bren Holmes]