Boy Harsher are back in full force. The darkwave duo of Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller recently returned with “Jeans,” a sharp, addictive track about small town dreams, dead end jobs and trying to escape the life expected of you. Its cold synths, dry humour and immediate chorus made it one of the best songs of 2026, and now it turns out it was only the beginning of a much bigger new era.
Boy Harsher have indeed announced their new album GET MEAN, arriving September 18 via Atlantic Records and marking their major label debut. Written after Matthews and Muller ended their romantic relationship in early 2024, the record emerged from grief, uncertainty and a period of constant movement. Recorded across eight locations in the United States, Mexico and Italy, GET MEAN follows the pair as they navigate heartbreak while trying to understand what their creative partnership could become next. Matthews describes it as “what I had to give during the most extreme period of my life.” From what we have heard so far, the album also sounds more straightforward and confirms Boy Harsher’s taste for pop, a genre that the danceable goth duo have occasionally explored through remixes of Nilüfer Yanya’s “Just a Western” and Pet Shop Boys’ “New London Boy.” Across its twelve tracks, their familiar coldwave pulse meets softer synth textures, guitars, voice notes and playful pop touches, turning a breakup album into something more restless, expansive and ultimately hopeful.
The announcement comes with “Hard Beat,” another shadowy dancefloor rush driven by pounding electronics and Matthews’ smoky commands. Boy Harsher also directed the accompanying video alongside cinematographer Owen Smith Clark, drawing inspiration from Helmut Newton and the queer punk energy of Gregg Araki’s films. Cheeky Ma and Mo Stark play a pair of strange lovers racing down an uncanny highway in a vintage Cadillac, while Matthews watches from the backseat beneath a funeral veil. Elsewhere, Angel Zinovieff appears trapped in a tiled room under constant surveillance. Stylish, unsettling and charged with urgency and danger, the video feels unmistakably Boy Harsher.
Catch Boy Harsher on tour in North America, and in Europe, with special guests Choir Boy, Evanora Unlimited, True Blue, and Kassie Krut.
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