New York Artist Allie Announces Second Studio Album Exploring Queer Love

Every Dog is a tightly focused, 27-minute collection of songs that blend richly layered soundscapes with introspective lyrics. The album reflects Allie’s journey through queer love, self-discovery, and the challenges of urban life. As Allie explains, Every Dog showcases her growth as a songwriter and her ability to blend abstract and literal storytelling: "I felt freer to write about my own experiences and wherever else my imagination took me, worrying less about fitting in with other artist peers, and just wanting to make something that felt fair and real and true to my life in this vast and crazy world."

The album is an immersive sonic experience that serves as both a creative and spiritual outlet for Allie. It features meditative reflections on themes such as depression, road trips across the Western U.S., and the intimate moments captured in a personal journal. The title track, a sweet exploration of self-discovery and supporting an ex-lover, also holds the vibrancy of New York City in its DNA. Allie describes the song as "a somewhat abstract representation of my own journey and the journeys of my loved ones, especially artist friends, to find solace in such a trying, chaotic environment here in NYC."

Recorded in Brooklyn with bandmates Alex Harwood (guitar), Maxwell Zikakis (bass/synth), and Patrick Freeman (drums), the album’s sound flows from Allie’s subconscious. She tied the music to the emotions each song evokes, aiming to create something that felt flickering and unpredictable, much like the constantly changing environment of New York City. The result is a collection of songs that evolve and deliver the listener somewhere unexpected, representing significant structural changes in relationships and life.

The video for "Every Dog," directed by bassist Zikakis, was shot on the Long Island coastline in late autumn. It follows Allie and her partner Caro, along with a family friend’s dog, Älska, in a series of impressionistic and playful shots. Allie shares, "The video feels quite impressionistic and open to interpretation. I love how the shots get progressively sillier over time... My favourite sequence is of what is presumably designed to appear as the dog and me looking out at each other across some great supposed body of water and perhaps time itself."

Last month, Allie shared the album's lead single, "Radio Shower," an impressionistic track inspired by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. The song is written in alternative tuning and layered with multiple instrumental parts. Allie admits that she second-guessed herself several times during the recording process, learning a valuable lesson about balancing studio experimentation with staying true to the original spirit of a song.

Allie, who performs under her first name, began writing music at the age of twelve in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. After moving to Nashville to further develop her artistic identity, she toured extensively as the drummer for indie pop rocker Cavetown. Her 2021 debut LP Maybe Next Time received praise from outlets like Brooklyn Vegan, Atwood Magazine, and Our Culture Magazine. The LP was followed by a 7-inch release included in Saddle Creek's Document Series, featuring the track "Cast Iron," produced by Ryan Hemsworth under the project Quarter-Life Crisis.

With Every Dog, Allie aims to carve out a space in the indie-rock world that is often dominated by men, offering a genuine connection with listeners through themes of humanity, seen through a queer, trans, and leftist lens. As Allie continues to explore her artistic vision, she invites listeners into a deeply personal and emotionally resonant world.

The contemplative, gentle track "Every Dog" is available everywhere now:

"'Every Dog' highlights different growths I’ve experienced as a songwriter, in the efficacy of both more abstract-leaning and literal-leaning types of storytelling."

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Image: Rachel Bennett