I’ve been listening to a lot of Ben Kweller lately.
The Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter has been one of my favorite artists since I discovered his 2002 solo debut, “Sha Sha,” the following fall. I’ve been a Kwellerhead ever since, following every one of his projects closely.
Recently, I’ve revisted his first few albums after falling in love with MJ Lenderman’s “Manning Fireworks.” I felt a synergy between the two musical styles that I couldn’t exactly place but I was happy to be reunited with Keweller’s music, which held such a big place in my own musical journey.
I can’t remember the last time I was as excited about the release of an album like “Cover The Mirrors,” the latest from Kweller, released via Noise Company May 30, 2025, which would have been his son Dorian’s 19th birthday.
On February 28, 2023 Kweller’s 16-year-old son Dorian died in a car crash and the loss influenced much of the album.
“It’s a full circle type of album,” Kweller said in a release about the album. “There’s a lot of reflecting — not only reflecting on the loss of Dorian. I’m also taking an inventory of everything else. My whole time on Earth. Everything I’ve created as an artist.”
“It wasn’t like I set out to say, ‘OK, I’m gonna make this album about going through grief and loss.’ But there was no way around it,” he said. “This is just another chapter of me trying to heal and just get through what I’ve been going through. My music is always very autobiographical.”
I listened to the first singles off the album on repeat, starting with “Dollar Store,” featuring another one of my favorite artists, Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee. Written with Modern Love Child, the track perfectly blends the styles of the two artists. It’s easily my favorite track on the album.
“I have a vision sometimes: Sunday afternoon in a shitty motel, the blinds are cracked, the sun’s coming through, and there’s the smell of an old air conditioner,” Kweller says. “It’s super depressing, but also comforting — you’re lost and complacent at the same time.”
The second single featured Lenderman, which shocked me. The appropriately titled “Oh Dorian” again matches Kweller’s country-influenced acoustic guitar with Lenderman’s competitive southern-style electric.
Written in part for his son’s high school friends, who surely miss the budding artist and skateboarder, it features a rollicking piano and is generally updated.
“I took the approach of: I’m actually talking to a really great friend I haven’t seen in a while — and I can’t wait to hang out again,” Kweller said about the track, which closes the album. “He’s not really gone. I’ll see him again.”
The album opens with “Going Insane,” which is sure to be a hit amongst Kwellerheads who count “In Other Words,” “Falling,” “Different But The Same” and “Nothing Happening” as their favorite Kweller songs.
“From a personal standpoint, it’s just literally what happened to us — and how you start feeling crazy. ‘Is this real? Is this a dream? How is this person that I’ve raised his whole life dead,’” Kweller said about the track.
Then there are the tracks that Kweller picked up to finish for his song—the first being “Trapped,” which was supposed to be featured on Dorian’s debut album, which went by the stage name ZEV.
“It was initially about a girl that he was dating in high school, and how he felt like they started dating before they really got to know each other,” Kweller said of the track. “I love that I’ll be able to sing that on stage every night thinking of him.”
The raw “Park Harvey Fire Drill” is a track that I hope to play for years, just like “Lizzy” and “Family Tree,” which have been in my repertoire since I basically memorized every note on “Sha Sha.”
“It’s a tradition in rock & roll to reference your early days — like the Beatles — and since this is my seventh album, it seemed right. It’ll be fun to sing that shit live,” he said about the track, which calls back “Sha Sha” and “Falling” in the chorus.
Of all the years I’ve been listening to Kweller, this album has the most collaborations of any he has released to date except for his 4-track EP with Ben Folds and Ben Lee – “The Bens.”
“Depression” features Jason Schwartzman’s musical project Coconut Records, which lays heavy on the synth sound, that was inspired by a preset sound on a keytar Kweller got for Hanukkah when he was eight. The subject isn’t all sadness, like how Rex Orange County turns around “It’s Not The Same Anymore.”
“I like the song because it goes to this other place at the end and doesn’t ever return to the beginning,” he said. “It goes off into the sunset.”
The Flaming Lips lend a psychedelic 60s spacey sound to “Killer Bee.”
Kweller also always embraced a punk-rock edge to his songs, which can be heard on “Optimystic.” “It’s a dark one,” he said. “It sounds upbeat, power pop, but it’s extremely dark.”
Despite the album being inspired by a heartbreaking moment in the singer-songwriter’s life, and even its title, which refers to the Jewish tradition of sitting Shiva, there are plenty of bright spots on “Cover The Mirrors.”
“Don’t Cave” was written for a country artist by Jimmy Robbins and Natalie Hemby in Nashville, Tennessee . Kweller reworked it to reference his personal struggle with loss.
“I sat down and really just kind of channeled where I was feeling in my life, and pretty much rewrote all the verses,” he said. “I got real — right down to the guts. It’s a hopeful song in the end; I’m going to keep the flame burning.”
My favorite flavor of Kweller is solo acoustic, like on the track “Letter To Agony” which winks at Elliott Smith.
“It starts off like: ‘I’ve never been scared to die but now I am scared to die,’” he said. “But by the end, I’m no longer scared.”
“Save Yourself” has that big arena sound like he included on his self-titled third album. “It’s about moving forward,” Kweller said. “Just reach your hand out — I’m gonna help you get across this river.”
Despite the tragedy that inspired “Cover The Mirrors,” it has inspired one of his best albums to date and fully reminded me why I first became a Kwellerhead more than twenty years ago.
See Ben Kweller June 28 at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey for the Shadow Of The City Festival with Bleachers.
Get “Cover The Mirrors” from Ben Kweller, Amazon, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer and qobuz.
Favorite Tracks
Going Insane
Dollar Store
Park Harvey Fire Drill
Depression
Killer Bee
Optimystic
Letter To Agony
Save Yourself
