If you could go back in time ten years, what would you want to
tell yourself? This was a question Khruangbin posed to
themselves when approaching the ten-year anniversary of their
debut album, the once cult classic, now genre-defining work
The Universe Smiles Upon You.
“If we could go back and tell ourselves how much was going to
happen to us after that record, what would we want to
celebrate?” asked Laura Lee, bassist, vocalist, and founding
member of the band. Instead, they thought: “Let’s do it again.”
The Universe Smiles Upon You ii was recorded on January 4-6,
2025, in the same family barn of guitarist Mark Speer, across the
same dates where TUSUY was first conceived ten years earlier.
Though the conditions were the same–dirt floor, brutally cold,
minimal sound isolation, all takes live–the songs aren’t. They’re
re-approached, some changed more than others, harnessing
the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of TUSUY while discovering
what would be unique this time around, in this stage of the
band’s life.
The result moves like ripples on the water across ten
hypnotizing tracks, the barn creating a sense of spaciousness,
serenity and creative freedom, nearby wildlife (listen out for the
birds on “August Twelve ii”), rattles and creaks of the barn and
all. It’s a tapestry of small movements in nuanced arrangements,
slowly revealing the new life, stories and character of someone
you’ve met again for the first time in ten years.

TRACKS
DISC 1
1. Little Joe and Mary ii
2. Balls and Pins ii
3. White Gloves ii
4. The Man Who Took My Sunglasses ii
5. People Everywhere ii
DISC 2
6. Bin Bin ii
7. August Twelve ii
8. Dern Kala ii
9. Two Fish and an Elephant ii
10. Zionsville i