BB STEVENS
Hoboken
(Stryker Records)
BB Stevens’ Hoboken is the sound of a restless artist staring down the modern world with both eyes wide open—and a guitar that won’t stop talking back. It’s a record that burns with wit, heart, and a tinge of Jersey streetlight nostalgia, yet it’s also unflinchingly aware that 2025 might just be teetering on the edge of madness.
After decades of working behind the scenes—writing for stars like Madonna, producing, and running his own successful music marketing company—Stevens returns to the spotlight like a man who’s seen too much and still believes rock & roll might save us. Hoboken, his first full-length in years, feels like both a confession and a sermon from a prophet who’s seen the chaos firsthand.
The album kicks off with “2025,” a sardonic anthem for the apocalypse. “We’re going to Hell on a ham sandwich,” Stevens sneers over crunching power-pop guitars and pounding drums, channeling the ragged urgency of Elvis Costello crossed with the cynical humor of Warren Zevon. It’s protest music for an era too ironic to protest.
“Gravity” dives headfirst into cosmic territory, its swirling keyboards and echoing vocals evoking Pink Floyd if they’d grown up on the Turnpike. It’s an alt-rock bruiser dressed in psychedelic shimmer, meditating on attraction, collapse, and the strange pull that keeps us orbiting our own disasters.
Then comes “Artificial Intelligence,” one of the album’s standouts—a sprawling, theatrical epic that toggles between dark satire and sci-fi paranoia. Opening with robotic vocoder lines that wink at Styx’s “Mr. Roboto,” the song builds into a moody, Floydian meditation on isolation in the digital age. “Someone in my dream whispered I love you,” Stevens croons, making a love song out of code and loneliness.
The tone shifts with “The Future Backwards,” a synth-driven nod to ’80s new wave, all handclaps and sly hooks, before the record’s emotional center arrives with Stevens’ punk-charged cover of “The Rainbow Connection.” It’s an inspired move—Kermit the Frog by way of CBGB—and it works brilliantly. Stevens strips the song of sentimentality and replaces it with urgency, like hope rediscovered in the rubble.
From there, Hoboken slides into its Americana roots. “Sexy Lexi’s Jive” struts through swampy blues territory with greasy slide guitar and a raspy, Tom Waits–like vocal snarl. “Accountability” brings the tempo down to explore emotional honesty and forgiveness, its refrain of “I’m here to say I’m sorry” delivered with unguarded sincerity.
“I Don’t Need” swings back to rock classicism, with Stones-worthy riffs and wry lyrics that celebrate music itself as the one true salvation: “I don’t need rocketships / All I need is music—that’s enough for me.” It’s the kind of song you imagine blasting from an old jukebox in a Hoboken bar as the neon flickers.
By the time we reach “Wake Up,” the mood turns introspective, echoing John Lennon’s dreamlike confessionals. Stevens’ production—layered but never overstuffed—invites repeated listens; the haunting electric piano that closes the track feels like a ghost in the machine.
And then there’s “The Magnificent Mr. Reder.” The album’s closer is a stripped-down elegy—just acoustic guitar, bass, brushed drums, and Stevens’ weathered voice offering gratitude to a fallen friend. “If I live a trillion years, I’ll never meet one like you again,” he sings, the line hanging in the air like smoke from the last candle in the room.
Hoboken isn’t a nostalgia trip—it’s a reckoning. Stevens uses the textures of classic rock, the intelligence of Americana storytelling, and the bite of postmodern satire to paint a vivid portrait of our fractured times. The album hums with the energy of an artist who’s been there, done that, and still believes in the transformative power of song.
If the world is going to hell on a ham sandwich, at least BB Stevens has given us a killer soundtrack for the ride.
Standout Tracks: “I Don’t Need,” “Artificial Intelligence,” “The Rainbow Connection,” “The Magnificent Mr. Reder”
For Fans Of: Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, Warren Zevon, The War on Drugs
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