Lael Neale – As Killers Do

Following three critically acclaimed records for Sub Pop, Lael Neale begins a new chapter with As Killers Do, the first release on her own Consensual Sound imprint. The album extends the handmade, intimate approach that has become central to Neale’s work while opening onto a wider range of sounds, from dream pop and lo-fi folk to garage rock, proto-punk and surreal psychedelic pop.

Recorded in the kitchen of an Echo Park bungalow in Los Angeles with longtime collaborator Guy Blakeslee, the album was captured on a Tascam cassette eight-track. That deliberately modest setup gives the songs a raw immediacy: Neale’s crystalline voice, Omnichord and direct songwriting sit at the centre, while Blakeslee’s psychedelic guitar and production add colour without sanding away the imperfections. Lead single Slip Away embodies that balance, pairing a pulsing garage-rock feel with reflections on impermanence and change.

Across ten songs, Neale explores anxiety, overthinking and the instability of contemporary digital life, gradually moving toward a more grounded and mystical perspective. Her lyrics find the extraordinary inside ordinary experience, while the arrangements draw on echoes of the Paisley Underground, 1960s girl-group pop and outsider folk without settling into any single style.

This ultra-limited indie-only import is pressed on black vinyl and presented in a hand-silkscreened kraft-board sleeve, extending Neale’s DIY visual world into the physical edition. Non-returnable and intentionally handmade in character, As Killers Do is both a new album and a statement of independence from an artist building a personal creative space around direct connection, analogue recording and tactile objects.