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Sam Gelston Announces New Album ‘See Through Now’: A Raw, Absurdist Reflection on Love, Loss, Illness, and Finding Beauty in the Everyday



Genre: Alternative • Rock • Lo-Fi Rock • Folk

FFO: Elliott Smith, Big Star, Jeff Buckley


Boston-based singer-songwriter Sam Gelston returns with See Through Now, a deeply personal and uncompromising new album. Written, performed, and recorded entirely by Gelston in his bedroom, the nine-track collection embraces imperfection, vulnerability, and absurdity while examining relationships, mental health, mortality, and the search for meaning in an increasingly disorienting world.


Originally trained as a drummer, Gelston taught himself guitar at fifteen, driven by a desire to expand beyond his primary instrument. His debut EP Breathe for You showcased his self-accompanied songwriting, while his first full-length album Trees in Season established him as an emerging storyteller with a distinctive voice. Following time spent forming alternative punk outfit Hands of Spite and contributing drums to Lenny Lashley's Gang of One album Pray for Death, Gelston returned to solo work with a renewed commitment to honesty and creative freedom.


On See Through Now, that commitment is palpable. The album strips away polish in favor of emotional truth, allowing rough edges, vocal cracks, missed notes, and spontaneous performances to remain intact. The result is a record that feels intimate, immediate, and profoundly human.


"See Through Now is a retrospective of my life up to this point," says Gelston. "Every song is its own little life and death while trying to hold onto a sense of absurdism. Things are strange, life is strange, I'm strange, and so are you. The important thing is remembering the peaks and valleys while realizing the world is still in front of you."


The album opens with the darkly comedic "I'm Coming to LA to Kill You," a tongue-in-cheek love letter to a best friend who moved across the country. Throughout the record, Gelston balances humor with emotional weight, whether exploring isolation within a relationship on "Who You Are," reconnecting after a fractured friendship on "IDKY," or confronting cycles of depression and self-doubt on "Lazy Too."


Songs like "Somethings Last a While" showcase Gelston's fascination with unsettling language and unconventional beauty, transforming familiar sentiments into vivid and often disarming imagery. Elsewhere, "Car Ride" and "Meet Me Downtown" examine perception, social validation, and the everyday struggle to find authenticity amid modern noise.


The album reaches its emotional climax with "Make It Make Sense," written after Gelston's diagnosis of kidney failure. Recorded from an iPhone demo that captured an unrepeatable moment of vulnerability, the song serves as both reckoning and declaration—a reflection on mortality that ultimately insists on perseverance.


Across its nine tracks, See Through Now offers a collection of songs that are unafraid to be contradictory: funny and heartbreaking, cynical and hopeful, chaotic and deeply sincere. It is an album rooted in the belief that beauty often emerges from imperfection and that meaning can still be found amid uncertainty.


Tracklist

I'M COMING TO LA TO KILL YOU

WHO YOU ARE

SOMETHINGS LAST A WHILE

CAR RIDE

IDKY

ROSES

LAZY TOO

MEET ME DOWNTOWN

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE


Credits

All songs written, performed, and recorded by Sam Gelston

Recorded by Sam Gelston

Mixed and mastered by David Chapman at Endless Noise Studios


Notes to Editors

Album Cover Artwork: Moriah Gilbert

Blonde-Haired Photo: Ellie India Rose

Cigarette Photo: Samuel Creager

Guitar Photo: Sam Gelston


About Sam Gelston

Sam Gelston is a singer-songwriter based in Boston, Massachusetts. Known for his distinctive voice, raw production style, and commitment to experimentation, Gelston's music challenges conventional ideas of beauty while pursuing emotional honesty and simplicity. Drawing influence from artists such as Elliott Smith, Big Star, and Jeff Buckley, he blends alternative rock, folk, and lo-fi sensibilities into songs that are both intimate and unpredictable. With See Through Now, Gelston continues pushing the boundaries of his songwriting while delivering his most personal work to date.


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