Letter to Elise – the five stages of grief
Team Reba! Never in my life did I think I’d be typing that for any reason, but here we are.
This week, we’re celebrating Letter to Elise, who is fresh off an appearance on NBC’s The Voice – a really, really cool opportunity, especially for an independent rock band from our neck of the woods. The Buffalo-based five-piece tout themselves as a “Rust Belt Rock ‘n Roll” band who write their songs with their blue collar hearts… I think that’s fair enough and technically true, but to my ears, this quintet is writing smartly-crafted pop rock, polished far past rust into a mirror-finish shine. Their latest album, the five stages of grief (which I will henceforth be referring to as grief), is razor-sharp and unapologetically glossy, taking cues from indie-pop luminaries like Neon Trees and Walk the Moon, and/or Heartland-esque rockers like The Killers to make a legit run at radio rock glory.
Album opener “the things i’ve learned from the spinning of a record” is ruthless. It has all the hallmarks of what you’d expect from pop rock in 2026 – palm muted guitars, ’80s era drum synths, squiggly synth splashes, and earworm vocals. These boys have done everything right – hit the chorus before the :30 second mark, transition out of the chorus with a whoa-oh singalong,… This is perfect, cutthroat songwriting to a T. This one even concludes with a sick, blistering guitar solo; I can’t think of a better way to start an album like this. It gives way to “i want what we have today,” which is equally as ebullient. Like a ray of sunshine or a shooting star – the production here is so shiny. Soaked in lush reverb, it listens like a halo of light or a ray of sunshine cutting through a dark cloud.
A journey through grief is an exercise in what it means to write a pop rock song in 2026. “karma is a killer” starts out with an Americana-tinged guitar and broken-up vocals before launching into a big harmonized chorus. You can find these same vibes on song three, “tension” – this is where Letter to Elise hits the hardest, leaning into their rock side while still keeping melodies and hooks sharp. Elsewhere, the band dips into synth-soaked stuff – “b.b.b.” (ostensibly short for bye-bye Betty), for example, oscillates with a near-constant synth arpeggiator, leaning into the band’s synth presence. “would you know me now,” too, has those EDM-dancefloor synths sparkling out, keeping the sounds rooted in a danceable vibe. There’s even a ballad with the acoustic-driven, slide-guitar tinged “closure” – play this one for your mom. She’ll love it.
For the record, Letter to Elise could have had Snoop Dogg too.
the five stages of grief is available now (September 10th, 2026). Check it out via Bandcamp, visit their linktree link for all streaming options, or head over to their website for more information.
Categorised in: Album of the Week
This post was written by Nick Sessanna