Wild Child (Austin, TX)

Genre:Rock

Wild Child’s third album Fools (out via Dualtone Records) is an ambitious collection of lush pop that takes sad stories and transforms them into an ebullient love letter to the power of music and the art of living with yourself. Led by Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins, the Austin-based seven piece has built a sprawling grassroots following on the strength of high-spirited live shows that feel like self-contained joy benders, along with two precocious albums––2011’s Pillow Talk and 2013’s The Runaround. Fools is an unashamed breakup album, but it’s more than last rites for lovers. The record bids farewell to the lives Kelsey and Alexander had thought lie in store. “We're about to live day to day for a long time, and our relationships are going to fall apart,” Kelsey says. “And there's nothing we can do about it. So, the record is also about letting go of expectations, just playing the fool. Fools is a release––a blind step out.”