Queen of Jeans 'hard/SWEET' LP

LP - Orange Vinyl
🚛 - Pre-Order expected to ship October 9th 2026

This fall, Philly’s indie sweethearts Queen of Jeans return with hard/SWEET, their new album about how tenderness can be an act of resistance in a world that rewards cynicism and rage.

Out October 9 on Memory Music, the label founded by Grammy Award-winning producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight), the album title is taken from a lyric in the album’s closing track (“I could be hard or I could be sweet, just tell me the version you’re needing of me"), but works as a theme for the record as a whole. Throughout, Queen of Jeans balances the tension between self-protection and kindness.

“We all have the ability to be hard or put up a wall,” the band explains. “But we also share the vulnerability of waiting for someone to truly know us and break through."

Across songs of desire, devotion, heartbreak, hope, and belonging, hard/SWEET explores the vulnerability of letting yourself love deeply, even when the world feels uncertain. It’s about finding home in another person, reaching toward strangers, and believing that tenderness, intimacy, and human connection are worth fighting for.

Produced by the band and Justin Bartlett, mixed by Yip and Bartlett, and mastered by Yip, hard/SWEET is a fitting title for the band’s fourth LP. Since forming in 2017, Queen of Jeans’ sound has always been soft around the edges but explores feelings that are anything but. As their sound has developed, they’ve refined a signature built around dreamy guitars, adventurous instrumentation, crushing lyricism, and one of the most underrated voices in modern indie rock: vocalist/guitarist Miri Devora. With guitarist Mattie Glass and bassist Andrew Nitz, Queen of Jeans are effortlessly timeless but still of-the-times, and continue to be one of indie’s most consistently compelling bands.

Today they share “Sweet Devotion,” a song that lives in the space between self destruction and self respect. A grungy ballad with dirty guitars and flirty bass crashing into Miri’s warm blanket vocals, “Sweet Devotion" begins with the impulse to pick apart every flaw for someone you think will finally make you feel at home in your body. “Picking at myself, guess I’m trying to rewrite the past,” Miri sings of the urge to become someone else’s idea of enough before turning into a promise to finally care for your own heart instead.

Elsewhere on hard/SWEET, Queen of Jeans passionately muse about growing up (“Still Learning”); search for connection in a world that often feels increasingly divided (“Nothin’”); and remind us that queer love deserves celebrating, especially in the places that grew us (“Bucks County”). By the end, it’s less a reflection on relationships and more a  statement about hope despite the overwhelming uncertainty of the world. It’s a reminder that even in our darkest moments, the people beside us can be our anchor if only we’re able to let them in.

Tracklisting: