Andrew Leahey & The Homestead - KICK MOVE SHAKE (2025) Hi-Res

Hailed by Rolling Stone for his "sharp storytelling and fist-pumping rock & roll swagger," Andrew Leahey widens his reach considerably with his fifth album, Kick / Move / Shake. It's the most eclectic and pop-friendly record of his career, heavily informed by the 1980s soundtrack of his youth. Synthesizers, glittering guitars, stacked vocal harmonies, and larger-than-life pop melodies are the album's building blocks, stacked into sparkling shape by Leahey (a three-time semi-finalist at the International Songwriting Competition) and producer Gregory Lattimer (Albert Hammond Jr., Aaron Lee Tasjan).

Andrew Leahey & The Homestead are back with a follow-up to American Static. On Kick / Move / Shake, Leahey and the band touch a sparkler / sparkle / sparkplug. First, in the technical delights of intricate pop arranging. Then, in his sensitivity to the geographies of longing.

For Leahey is attentive to horizons, the lack of them, and the fault lines as “Phosphorescent” turns to “Horizonless” and to “One that Got Away Came Back.” The bouncy grooves, stacked synths, and melodies that ramble their way to triumph make these metaphors fit for a road trip. It may be what you need in that last long hour, but to Kick / Move / Shake primarily for Leahey’s stylistic turn from down-the-line Americana would be to miss what makes this record really fire.

It starts coming into sharp perspective on “Sleepwalking the Ceiling.” Here, Leahey considers the heartache of living parallel, trying to cross the line, and coming up short. And all across Kick / Move / Shake, Leahey kindles the awareness of what lights life up, always looking at these things from across the thresholds. Whether of heartbreak or death or simply time. On “Sleepwalking,” they’ve set it to a bop. On “Not Like September,” to a ballad.