The Accident

Melbourne duo Good Morning had already enjoyed a fruitful 2024, having released the double album *Good Morning Seven* and toured extensively with Waxahatchee. Yet Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons couldn’t resist dropping another long-player before year’s end. That doesn’t mean *The Accident* is an afterthought, however. As on this album’s instrument-stuffed predecessor, the pair continue to develop their songwriting and instrumentation in subtly wowing ways. Listen out for the overlapping vocals on opener “Baby Steps,” horns and woodwinds floating over a low-key country rustle during “Peaches,” and a fertile bed of distortion and drum machine beneath “The Grateful Dead” (inspired by a documentary on the iconic band). Having self-recorded for more than a decade now—a process that took them from Hydra to Joshua Tree and back to Melbourne this time around—Good Morning often comes off so cozy and relaxed that you might think they’re not trying as hard as they could. But Blair and Parsons have always been quiet achievers, culminating in *The Accident*’s eight-minute finale. Gradually shifting from a daydream ramble to a much more ambitious journey, “Soft Rock Band” sees Parsons plunder his personal life while dispensing some of his most striking lyrics to date with signature nonchalance.