Horseshoes shares new album ‘suite ossuary’

Over the last few years, Salt Lake City-based musician Austin Greaves, who performs under the name Horseshoes, has built a sonic world all his own where emotional themes are worn with grace and where intimate confessionals are wrapped in the warmth of reverb and shadow. Since the release of his debut album Desert in 2022, Horseshoes has made a name for himself with a series of singles and a follow-up record, Black Snow, which confirmed his status as a rising figure in the sphere of lo-fi indie rock music.

Now, with the release of his third full-length record titled suite ossuary, Horseshoes returns with what might be his most affecting work to date. Eschewing any dramatic statements or grand flourishes, instead, it draws you in slowly, like fog rolling in over a quiet landscape, offering hushed revelations, one track at a time. Suite ossuary serves as a meditation on transformation, using love and grief not as opposites, but as mirror images.

The experience of falling in love becomes an act of shedding, of becoming someone new while gently mourning the version of yourself you’ve left behind with Horseshoes deftly capturing that in-between space with an aching emotion. Taking cues from the likes of Elliott Smith, Duster and The Postal Service, there’s also an undercurrent of jazz influence with echoes of Miles Davis and Bill Evans.

Across the album, Horseshoes floats between minimal acoustic sketches and shimmering walls of lo-fi noise, forging a subtly cinematic quality that’s at once timeless and engrossing. But for all its atmospheric allure, suite ossuary is a record that lives and breathes in the small moments; the crack in a voice, the decay of a chord, the pause before a lyric lands. “This album is ideally suited for people interested in having a melancholic rainy day sort of afternoon… It seeks to celebrate the ghosts that haunt us as we fall in love,” he shares.

Gliding into a laid back groove on opening track “shooting stars,” dusty drums and warm sax tones are met by Austin’s moving vocal performance as he casts a spellbinding soundscape of delicate melodies and metaphoric lyrics. Flowing with mellow energy, packed full of emotion, instilled with subtly catchy melodic leads and peppered with intricate instrumental flourishes, it’s a dazzling jam that puts his enduring songwriting on full display.

“drive” injects a bouncy energy of shuffling percussion, playful piano plinks and breezy acoustic guitar rhythms capped by smooth vocal lines to deliver a concise burst of memorable indie rock. With “seance,” the rattle of electronic drums and synth bass lines sees Horseshoes’ expand the musical output of the album with a bright and colourful dose of elegant indietronica.

Other highlights on the record include songs like title track “suite ossuary” which presents a stripped back, folk-inflected voyage that gently drifts through an absorbing soundscape of softly twanging guitar notes and graceful vocals driven by the calming patter of drums. “folding clothes” frames the artist’s poignant songwriting in an intimate setting of lilting guitars and slowly sweeping atmosphere, resulting in a charming alternative folk sound.

Closing the release with “goodnight,” the sombre plucks of guitar, tender swirl of synths and airy, hushed vocals combine to craft a mesmeric finale, perfectly concluding the superb new album from Horseshoes. With suite ossuary, Horseshoes proves himself as an artist capable of turning something personal into something profoundly immersive, offering a listening experience that can stop you in your tracks and wrap you in a truly spectacular sound.

Listen to suite ossuary below