7/10

There’s a fire smoldering at the heart of Jordan Phoenix’s latest release, one that crackles with rebellion, grief, and a deep hunger for transformation. 'A New Liberation & The Star Child From America' sees Phoenix strip things back to their emotional core, carving out a sound that fuses raw punk ferocity with the pulse of hard rock urgency.

Opening salvo 'Rebel' wastes no time. It tears through the speakers with a sound that is unapologetic, confrontational, and rooted in a deep mistrust of systems that confine. But Phoenix isn’t all fire and fury. Lead track 'Affliction' trades fists for an open wound. Channelling an intimate heaviness here, the track sits as a meditation on distance, disconnection, and the quiet ache of wanting someone you can’t hold. The textures may lean towards the aggressive, but the emotional current runs tender. And it’s this tension between defiance and vulnerability that makes the album feel both deeply urgent and human.

Throughout 'A New Liberation', the frontman seems less concerned with polish than with honesty. This is music made by someone digging for meaning in the rubble, all while grappling with identity, longing, and the complicated inheritance of growing up American. The result is a collection that both rages against the world as it searches for something better within it.

This is the sound of someone choosing reinvention over resignation. A record that dares to be both wounded and wild at a time that feels more necessary than ever.