8/10

After fifteen years away from full-length albums, Chicago-based songwriter Carl Hauck returns with 'Death Farm', a record that feels fragile yet fiercely observant. The frontman has always crafted a deeply personal sketchbook of Americana, where the line between the political and the personal blurs, and where vulnerability and wry humour coexist in perfect tension.

The album opens with 'Last Straw Decoration', a track whose closing field recording of a father cautioning his scooter-riding daughter encapsulates the album’s central ethos of observing life with a mix of awe, tenderness, and cautious awareness. Hauck’s finger-picked guitar and poignant tenor set the stage, paired with cello contributions from Lia Kohl on standout track 'Count the Rings', where he wrestles with emotional reckoning, self-awareness, and the weight of generational experience.

His production is as adventurous as his songwriting. Self-recorded and intentionally unpolished, the album swings from distorted, fragmented textures to warm, pastoral folk, emphasising the intimacy of its storytelling. Tracks such as 'Two-for-One Special' and 'House Tour (Guillotine)' showcase a playful, sometimes absurdist streak, narrating the oddities of everyday life with subtle critique. Meanwhile, the title-track, a live-recorded a capella waltz with Kelsey Wild and Molly Robison, imagines an unconventional rural world, affirming Hauck’s ability to fuse idealism with grounded observation.

Throughout 'Death Farm', Carl Hauck navigates a spectrum of human experience; such as desire, regret, hope, and reflection, but always tempered with self-awareness and understated humour. The result is an album that feels honest, immersive, and quietly revolutionary. With every track, he reminds us that even amidst cultural decay, there is space for play, reflection, and redemption. 'Death Farm' is a rare work of folk-rock poetry that embraces imperfection while carving out something wholly luminous.