Remi Wolf gets loose and spontaneous on Mud, a warm, live-in-the-room new album which includes a guest turn by John Mayer.
Remi Wolf gets down to the essentials on Mud, her third album and the follow-up to 2024’s Big Ideas. Across 11 songs, Wolf trades some of the densely layered production of her earlier work for a warmer, more spacious sound built around live instrumentation, spontaneous performances and a close-knit group of collaborators.
The album grew out of a period when Wolf found herself questioning what she wanted to say and how she wanted to make music after years of touring, writing and recording. Early sessions in Nashville eventually led to a retreat in Big Bear with longtime collaborator Jared Solomon and friends Jack DeMeo, Jamie McLaughlin and Gigi Grombacher. The group wrote together, cooked family dinners, and passed microphones around the kitchen, creating what Wolf came to describe as a “family band.” Sessions later continued at Electric Lady Studios in New York and in Joshua Tree.
That communal approach runs through Mud. Synths and programmed drums largely give way to guitars, live drums and performances captured with the musicians together in the room, giving Wolf’s songwriting plenty of room to breathe. Songs including “Bottle,” “Twiggy,” “I Won’t Cry” and “Covered In Mud” capture the emotional messiness behind the album while retaining the playful personality that has always made Wolf difficult to pin down.
For Remi Wolf, Mud ultimately became a cleansing experience. She has described beginning the record feeling overwhelmed and emerging from it with a new sense of clarity. The result is an album built from friendship, instinct and the willingness to leave some rough edges intact.