Imagine spotting a girl walking down the street in an impossibly cool outfit, effortlessly cool and bopping along to whatever’s playing in her headphones. You can hear cool, heavy guitar bleeding through, so you tap on her shoulder and ask what she’s listening to. There’s a high likelihood it’s Girl Tones, officially my it-girl band to watch at the moment. Their style, their attitude — they’re absolutely nailing that cool-girl energy. I may have even screenshotted a few of their IG posts for fashion inspo.With clear influences from 90s and early 00s rock but a distinctly modern edge, the Bowling Green, Kentucky duo have a sound and aesthetic all their own.
With their debut album, Precious, arriving November 6, the band steps things up and shows us exactly what they’re capable of: from heavy hooks and full-blown distortion to power-pop gems and beautiful ballads about grief and loss.
I got hooked on Girl Tones with the release of last year’s single “Fade Away,” with its hooky-as-hell guitar riff and eye-catching video. “Burnout” followed later that year — a song so catchy and perfectly, effortlessly cool that it became one of my most-played Spotify tracks of all 2025, despite not being released until October.
The sisters grew up obsessed with music, both receiving classical training on cello and piano. That musical foundation comes through in the way each song feels so thoughtfully composed. Having only two members doesn’t keep Girl Tones from creating a sound that feels enormous; every track is full, layered, and capable of washing over you like a wall of sound.
“Cherry Picker” opens the album with full-blown fuzz, singalong verses, and a whole lot of attitude, setting the tone for what’s to come: big, riff-heavy tunes, drums that sound like they’re coming right upside your head, and often bratty lyrics (“I bite the hand that feeds me”) balanced with more introspective, slower-burning moments.
“Blame” leans more toward power pop, with hook-heavy melodies, choruses full of “ooooh ooohs,” and killer guitar riffs peppered throughout. “Stubborn Mouth” brings the huge fuzz back, pairing it with a ridiculously catchy chorus. The frenetic drumming, punctuated by the sticks hitting the rim of the drums almost like a metronome, gives the whole thing an extra jolt of energy. This one has a habit of getting stuck in my head.
The title track, “Precious,” arrives right around the middle of the album. A slower, piano-driven tune, it drifts along in a dreamy haze, with lovely strings accompanying a song about grief, loss, and the unexpected ways life moves forward.
“Our Abuelita passed away in 2020, and the song came from experiencing the grief of losing a loved one,” Kenzie explains. “She always referred to us as her ‘Precious.’ The handwriting on the cover is actually from a card she sent to me. We worked on the album for a while, and it’s so precious to us. Around the time we said goodbye to her, I started dating my now-husband. As much as the song is about losing a loved one, it’s also about gaining a new loved one.”
Precious” is followed by “Again,” arguably the heaviest track on the album. The guitar line on this one is absolutely insane. When I’m driving my minivan around without the kids, I often roll down the windows and blast the hell out of it. Just pure fucking rock and roll.
“Pretty Face” is another distortion-heavy hitter, while “I Know You Know” takes things in a more introspective direction. Fingerpicked guitar gives the track an almost eerie atmosphere, with Kenzie’s breathy, beautiful vocals floating above it all. “Volcano” is reminiscent of early aughts rock, driving rhythms and a snotty attitude- “Got no opinion, I just don’t care”.
The album’s closing track, “Mirror,” is a beautiful, dreamy meditation on death and grief. Co-written by Kenzie’s husband, gentle acoustic guitar accompanies the hazy vocals as emotion seems to spill out with every breath of the line: “It’s not your fault. You don’t get to choose. No control, the sting of death doesn’t have to be a curse on you.”
“That particular line is so powerful,” Kenzie explains. “We had lost our grandpa a couple weeks earlier. We went into the studio with an initial idea and just captured how we felt.”
“It was so raw,” Laila adds. “It’s really special to us.”
There’s just something about sibling bands that always seems to carry a kind of kinetic magic, both in songwriting and in harmonizing. Whether it’s the Kinks, Oasis, Redd Kross, or Girl Tones, there’s a certain power in making music with someone you share blood with — an unspoken genetic harmony that can lead to some incredible tunes.
Precious is the kind of album that blasts you with energy from start to finish. Even in its slower, more melodic moments, there’s a passion and intensity running through every note. Girl Tones knock it out of the park with their debut.
Pick up a copy of Precious, out November 6: https://www.girltones.com/#shop
Catch the band on tour: https://www.girltones.com/#tour
Follow Girl Tones: https://www.instagram.com/girl.tones
