Saint Nick The Lesser - 'Growing up, Growing out'

Some albums arrive polished while chasing perfection. 'Growing up, Growing out' does the exact opposite, delivering a record that breathes, stumbles, and steadies itself like a long-overdue conversation you didn’t know you needed to have. Saint Nick the Lesser turns a decade of living into something equal parts battle cry and bedside confession, tracing the messy outlines of change without sanding off the splinters.

There’s a lived-in quality to the way these songs move, with chords that feel like hand-me-downs but still carry their own stories, vocals that lean into the cracks instead of hiding them, and verses that swing between a shrugging joke and a gut-punch of truth. Tracks like 'Cassandra' and 'Amethyst' are the true standouts, where delicate strings weave through the grit, lending an almost accidental grace to the album's rawness.

What makes the record stick is its mix of punk-folk grit and emotional candour, and the way it frames the everyday as something worth mythologising. One minute you’re in the corner booth of a gas station coffee stop, the next you’re staring down the unanswerable questions of life, the push and pull of wanting to grow while still clinging to the familiar.

If the preview single '21 Minutes' hinted at survival, this album feels like the slow, barefoot walk out of the wreckage, unsure of the destination but certain of the direction. It’s a debut that trusts us to lean in to the quiet victories as well as the unanswered questions.

Saint Nick the Lesser is both someone telling their own story, and someone holding the door open, waiting to let you walk through yours.