Free Throw - Moments Before The Wind

Since forming in 2012, FREE THROW’s story has been simple: keep going. New records, longer tours, bigger rooms—it’s always been another step upward for the Nashville-based quintet, whose 2014 debut, Those Days Are Gone, has become an era-defining classic in the emo-punk genre.

Every milestone has pushed them ahead, but on their sixth LP, Moments Before The Wind (Wax Bodega), that constant charge gradually slows—suspended mid-step, mid-thought, mid-life. Recorded with longtime producer Brett Romnes on either end of the sold-out Those Days Are Gone 10-year tour, the follow-up to 2023’s Lessons That We Swear To Keep chronicles a surrealist descent into liminality: a period of intense personal upheaval colored by loss, renewal, reflection, and, ultimately, life-altering joy through the impending birth of a child.

The 11-song set is disarmingly real, colored by sonic spontaneity—a swirl of Midwest emo, sweat-soaked punk fervor, and crashing alternative rock—but also the sort of achingly vulnerable lyricism fans and critics have come to expect from the band.

Canary Yellow Vinyl