A new beginning, five albums deep. Two Windows marks Lali Puna's return after a six-year absence, and it arrives as the most dancefloor-ready and rhythmically energized record the Munich group have ever made. Songwriter and vocalist Valerie Trebeljahr, recording for the first time without longtime member Markus Acher, spent nearly two years crafting these twelve songs alongside Christian Heiß and Christoph Brandner, emerging with something that honors the emotional intelligence and pop sensibility at the heart of Lali Puna's sound while pushing it confidently into new sonic territory. The sound takes its cues from the lush, beat-driven end of the contemporary electronic landscape, drawing comparisons to Caribou, Ada, and Mount Kimbie while remaining unmistakably Lali Puna. A tour of South Korea rekindled Trebeljahr's creative urge after years spent focused on journalism and family, and that renewed sense of purpose runs through every track. The collaborators she sought out are as well-chosen as the music itself. Keith Tenniswood of Two Lone Swordsmen appears as Radioactive Man. Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello contributes. Harpist and Ghostly International alumna Mary Lattimore and experimental artist Midori Hirano of MimiCof add texture and depth throughout. Lyrically, Two Windows is an album about emancipation and change, touching on personal freedom, surveillance culture, and urban gentrification with the nuance its title implies. Like a window, Trebeljahr's writing always offers two perspectives, acknowledging problems while empathizing with those who navigate them. She has not come to preach but to forge emotional connections, and the music reflects that balance precisely. Even a gender-flipped reimagining of a Kings of Leon song finds its way into the mix, feeling completely natural in context. As Trebeljahr sings on "Wonderland": all things will change, all things must change. Housed in glossy artwork with a printed inner sleeve.
