Tuesday 10 November 2026
Australian duo Armlock, made up of Simon Lam and Hamish Mitchell, have announced their new album, Amazing, due out on 5 February via Run For Cover Records. The pair take an electronic approach to making deeply human indie rock, and on this record they’ve boiled their sound down to its most crucial elements. To celebrate the announcement they’ve shared the lead single and video “Lifer“. Here are five things to know.
1. “Lifer” is their most straightforward song yet
The album opens with “Lifer”, which the band describe as possibly “the most straightforward song we’ve ever made”. Around the time they wrote it, they became a little obsessed with using really plain, unpoetic lyrics, which they say probably came from a series of long and complicated conversations happening in real life. “There was something soothing about trying to boil down messy thoughts into the simplest words possible,” they explain. “It’s about finding confidence in someone else’s confidence, moving forward, and who you’re doing it with.” It’s a fitting introduction to Armlock’s minimalist yet deeply immersive music.
2. The video was shot on a day off in LA
The band shot the “Lifer” video themselves, with their bass player, Geography, on a day off while on tour in Los Angeles. “We wanted to use a luxury car and Hollywood as a symbol of prosperity, and an overly positive omen for the future,” they say. There’s a lovely bit of honesty behind the glamour, too: “We couldn’t afford to hire the car for the day but they let us sit in it for an hour or two.” The single is out now to stream, with the video on YouTube, and Amazing is available to pre-order now.
3. It’s their biggest record so far
Amazing is the band’s third release, following 2021’s Trust and 2024’s Seashell Angel Lucky Charm, which drew attention from Stereogum, The FADER, BrooklynVegan, Paste Magazine and Bandcamp Daily. It’s their most substantial to date, stretching past seven songs for the first time with ten tracks, including the earlier singles “Strobe” and “Half Time”. “We wanted this one to sort of feel like a culmination of this era of the band,” says Lam. “We wanted it to be the most Armlock record it could be.” It was recorded between the two members’ own studios.
4. Two jazz students who learned guitar from scratch
Friends for nearly two decades, Lam (vocals and guitar) and Mitchell (guitar and keyboards) met studying jazz at Monash University in Melbourne, and worked on electronic and dance-oriented projects including I’lls, Couture and Kllo. Armlock came from a shared wish to push outside their comfort zone, which meant both learning guitar. “It was like ‘ok, we’re gonna make guitar music because we don’t really know how to do that and it will be an exciting challenge,” Lam explains. Mitchell adds that guitar is “still so foreign to me, not like piano where I know my way around, so I’m always discovering something on the instrument itself.”
5. A record about growing up, with less polish and more feeling
The press notes compare Amazing at times to Pinback’s lean alternative, Alex G’s adventurous indie and the “cloud-rock” scene coming out of Copenhagen. Expect crystal clear guitars, taut, spare drum beats and warm vocals, with standouts “Half Time” and “Crystal” pairing head-bobbing beats with clean guitar lines. Lam’s lyrics explore the quiet desperation that can creep in as youth gives way to adulthood. “A lot of it is about the future,” he says. “Trying to build a life because you can feel that change is impending—it’s sort of like a race against time to get yourself set up, to burn through the habits of your twenties because things are getting serious.”
Release details
Album: Amazing by Armlock
Released: 5 February on Run For Cover Records
Tracklist: 1. Lifer, 2. Half Time, 3. Nectarine, 4. From Here On, 5. Amazing, 6. Crystal, 7. Did, 8. Strobe, 9. Kiss, 10. Air
US shows: 2 March, Washington, DC (DC9); 4 March, Philadelphia (Philamoca); 5 March, New York (Zone One); 6 March, Boston (Something In The Way Fest); 8 March, Los Angeles