It may have been touch and go for a bit, but feeble little horse return with another excellent album.
Release date: May 26, 2026 | Saddle Creek | Website | Bandcamp
Call it an overreaction, but when I finished writing my review of their magnificent 2023 album, I really did not think we would ever hear from feeble little horse again. I had been down this nearly identical road before. Indie band I had grown to enjoy drops an excellent major label debut, gets a lot of hype and acclaim, and right before their next tour begins, they abruptly announce a complete cancellation for health reasons. You can see how I jumped the gun a bit, especially considering the band did end up losing a member in-between albums. Fortunately though, that wasn’t the end of feeble little horse as it was my beloved Forth Wanderers. They resumed touring after a year, went back to dropping new tracks in 2025, and released their third album, bitknot, a year after that.
Some time off, and possibly the departure of Ryan Walchonski, pushed their music in a bit of a softer direction than it had been in the past – yet doing so while still adding a pretty noticeable increase in feeble little horse‘s writing quality. “Doorway” is an incredible start to the album. For an album with a very nostalgic electro-pop sound, starting bitknot with a track about the ways nostalgia can be a painful trap is a great choice, and it’s executed to perfection. I love how petty the short and concise “Shady” is. Lead singer Lydia Slocum is one of the more charming and charismatic writers out right now, and tracks like this really demonstrate why. The more intimate tracks like “Shopping” which show the struggle of constantly comparing yourself to others you see online, and trying to live your life in a constant performance, still manage to stay humorous while being purposeful.
The enhanced writing helped make some real bops too. I never thought I would say this for a feeble little horse track but I could definitely imagine “Dior” having major crossover potential. It’s absurdly catchy, punchy, and one of the funnier tracks the band has ever done. It’s also a bit mean but in an endearing way, which helps. Love the Juice WRLD reference too. I adore the instrumental on “Rewind”, it’s so glitchy, it’s almost cute. Sounds like something that could be in a children’s movie, but it works. Great track about coming to terms with the distance growing between two people. “Poison” is an excellent track with an addictive chorus and an even better music video. Please watch it; the depressed tree is so good.
bitknot goes for a bit more of a poppier and softer sound than some of feeble little horse’s past work. If I didn’t know any better and you played me “Paris”, I would assume it was an unfinished track from Kero Kero Bonito – it’s so sugary it’s almost overwhelming. I can’t get ‘I’m too shy for New York, Imma fly down to Paris/In my twenty-two karat plane’ out of my head. “Upside Down” is another short and sweet electro-pop track with an infectious hook to draw you in.
As a whole, the shift does work, but I do find myself missing some of the louder and more aggressive moments from Girl with Fish like “Pocket” and “Freak”. It could be a brief detour into the other end of their sound that had always been there, but the restructuring of feeble little horse between albums would lead me to guess it may be a bit more permanent. I’m not worried they’ll find the right blend in the long run. In the meantime, bitknot is an excellent album from a band that two years ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear from again. I’ll take the win for now.
